Livestock theft, a shortage of water supply, problems obtaining social grant assistance, crime, and poor road infrastructure are some of the challenges brought by the community of Shikhumba village to the mayor’s attention. Speaking on behalf of the community, Kristine Mashimbye, told the mayor that farmers need improved protection of their livestock, saying there has been an increase in livestock theft. “Our animals are being stolen on a daily basis, and no one cares about it anymore,” Mashimbye said.
The mayor responded by assuring the community that the municipality would take the necessary steps to ensure that their demands were met. She also urged the community to avoid providing housing to criminals because doing so would encourage crime to flourish in their area. “Our community’s involvement in the problem of crime makes it worse. In certain cases, we are to blame for it since we allow criminals into our homes knowing they are going to commit crimes that will negatively impact the whole community,” she said.
“Similar to the recent incident in Louis Trichardt, the perpetrators were housed in a local residence, while strategising how to carry out their crime. The same issue applies here; you let strangers dwell in your community, and when night falls, the same individuals steal your possessions,” said the mayor. She encouraged local communities to protect new developments in their area.
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She added that water scarcity could be mitigated if local communities refrained from illegal connections on the water pipeline as it prevents it from reaching certain areas. “As a municipality, we will bring up the issue with the district municipality to see if they can’t energise the existing boreholes in your area.
But if they do bring you generator pumps as a temporary solution, I would like to warn you that you shouldn’t steal it, as that would put us back where we started,” she said. The mayor also addressed the challenges pensioners face on payday. “It doesn’t make sense to send our pensioners from pillar to post because of a network problem when they need to withdraw money. The network issue needs to be resolved immediately,” she said. She promised to engage with the Department of Social Development on the issue.
