MATSULU B – What started as a normal mayoral imbizo, turned into an emotional and sad state of affairs for the Mbombela executive mayor, Cllr Cathy Dlamini as she was confronted with human tragedies and plights during her door-to-door visit in this area.
Dlamini came face to face with real poverty and huge challenges faced by the people, which saw her break down. In one household, occupied by pensioners and their two children, she spent about an hour listening to how the elders were being conned out of their monthly pension grants by a neighbour known to this paper.
As if that was not enough, from the same household, Dlamini was told how the eldest daughter, who suffers from epilepsy, was burnt by a fire and couldn’t afford to even call a cab to take her to the clinic.
Dlamini gave the family R1 000 and ordered one of the officials and a local resident to arrange transportation and take the girl to the doctor. “This is the reason why we bring along food parcels whenever we visit households because of the poverty some of our people are still living in. Then you get to hear opposition parties talk a lot and disapprove of this gesture and we can’t blame them because they have never experienced this kind of life before.
“This is strictly a government programme, but you must remember that I work for the ANC and there is no way that I can tell the people to continue voting for the organisation if we don’t continue to deliver services to them.
“We know some people may have lost patience because they listen to other political parties who served their own agendas while others humiliate our people by giving them open toilets, but I want to assure them that the ruling party who fought tooth and nail for this country and for its people, did not do that to abandon them today.”
