TZANEEN: Time for action
Mayor Maripe Mangena said that he was optimistic that through stakeholder involvement and working hand-in-hand with the municipality, development would be well in an arms reach.
Agricultural development, hitchhiking and crime prevention came as areas of discussion at the LED forum last week Thursday.
Various stakeholders came together at the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) Council Chambers to not only listen to the proposed resolutions from the previous forum meeting, but to also devise strategies wherein the resolutions would be acted upon.
The Mayor of GTM, Maripe Mangena stated that just a day before the forum, a meeting was held to discuss the 2017/2018 audit as well as proposed strategies for a clean audit in the current financial year.
“Because we are now aware of the problems, we have a better idea of how we can best tackle them. The fact that we can change things in our town is one of the things I am optimistic about,” stated Mayor Maripe Mangena.
Although the forums are mostly centered on development, Mangena also explained that it is best to address all the smaller things that may be the cause of hindrance to achieving a developed town.
“We need not only look into achieving results, but also take into account the things that will help us get there. We have great production in terms of agriculture and we can even take to working with traditional leaders in order to identify business opportunities.
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“With electricity and businesses in the CBD taking into regard the hawkers and drug dealers, I believe relative stakeholders will be engaging with one another and the municipality to phase out threats. GTM is working on the Nkowankowa Industrial Park development as a way to attract more business opportunities. I think this is also the right platform to make an example of the Dan Village patrol team, we need to learn from them and expand that into other areas of our town.”
Freddy Rammalo from the GTM LED took to reading the resolutions that were proposed by the affected stakeholders.
Speaking on behalf of local farmers, Eveart Shai raised the difficulties faced by most farmers in the business sector mainly due to water rights.
“We are given a tough time when we approach markets to sell our products. The municipality needs to step in and help us as the processes take too long and sometimes we are unattended to once we start applying for water rights. As already mentioned that agriculture is important, we need the services to be prioritised,” she exclaimed.
The other issue that arose with regards to agriculture and farming was that of theft happening on farms, and touched on the resolutions regarding hawkers.
“We have already started with a cleanup campaign where we will be re-registering hawkers and moving them to a different location, perhaps to places such as taxi and bus ranks but that is still to be discussed in full length,” exclaimed Rammalo.
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The last issue that came to light was that of the recent cases of robberies experienced by people when hitchhiking.
As a strategy, the SAPS pledged to work with the taxi association to try and come up with preventative measures thereof.
“The most common area with difficulty in our town is the road to Lenyenye, Nkowankowa, Maake and so forth as people get robbed of possessions worth hundreds and thousands of Rand’s. We need to find a way around this so we can keep our people safe in the long run,” stated Colonel Owen Grove from the Tzaneen Cluster Office.
The meeting ended with the mayor pleading with all stakeholders to come up with more resolutions than problems for the next forum meeting.
“Between now and the 11th of July, you will have to engage with one another to find possible ways around the problems that have been raised. It is in our hands to find these solutions and start implementing them. We cannot continue to have a town with scattered businesses and hope for proper development,” concluded the mayor.
