KWAGGAFONTEIN – The provincial legislture’s “Taking the legislature to the people” concept has enticed many residents of the Thembisile Hani local municipality.
The outreach initiative, taking place at the local stadium which resumed on Monday and will continue until Friday, September 20, is an annual initiative that takes a week to give the public the chance to interact with the members of legislature. This initiative is conducted to fulfill the responsibilities taken by the legislature to monitor the progress on meeting the targets set by different departments by conducting oversight visits and checking the execution progress on the set objectives.
Members of the community also raised their concerns within their municipal wards and the slow process of receiving services at the KwaMhlanga Hospital, the ill-treatment of patients from the young hospital staff, shortage of doctors and nurses at higher intensive care unit. The social development department were giving feedback of the questions raised during their last visit to this municipality.
Community members have raised the issue of water, sanitation, drugs and substance abuse in schools, unemployment, favouritism within ward councillors, sports facilities, and not prioritising of the RDP houses to the needy first.
From the MEC for sports culture and recreation said the department has engaged with the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism with the view of handling all the department’s projects. “DEDET will be involved when the projects are at a level of exporting from all the trainings. DEDET will rely on the agencies such as Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and Tourism Enterprise (TP),” she said.
Department of health and social development is still working on the issues affecting the department and has resolved a few. The programmes will continue until Friday where the premier will deliver his closing remarks.
