Picture for illustration. Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula arrives by helicopter in Vuwani after protests over the merging of the community into a new municipality have brought daily activity to a standstill, 20 April 2017. Picture: Yeshiel Panchea
Government services resumed this week in Vuwani, the violence-torn township in the Vhembe region of Limpopo after years of bickering between residents and government over the incorporation of the area into Collins Chabane local municipality.
In 2016, pandemonium broke out in the area after communities in Vuwani refused to be incorporated into then Lim 234, better known as Collins Chabane local municipality.
Angry residents opposed the move, claiming basic services would be not be rendered as the new council was not yet developed. They went on the rampage, closing and burning down schools and other government buildings.
Several meetings were arranged but turned into chaos as residents insisted on remaining under the Makhado municipality.
ALSO READ: Parents pull pupils out of dilapidated Vuwani school in fresh protest
In 2017, former president Jacob Zuma and then Limpopo MEC for cooperative governance Makoma Makhurupetsa had to be whisked away by police from angry residents baying for their blood.
Zuma was there to meet the Pro-Makhado Task Team and the community after 21 schools were torched, affecting 30 000 pupils.
At the time, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga declared Vuwani a disaster area after pupils stayed at home for more than six months. And this after the department of education had spent R117 million to renovate damaged schools.
ALSO READ: Two years on from Vuwani protests and learners still left to suffer
Four years later, all that is water under the bridge – thanks to MEC for cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs Basikopo Makamu; premier Stan Mathabatha, traditional leaders and Collins Chabane mayor Moses “Big Moss” Maluleke.
Speaking during signing of the agreement and the official opening of services in Vuwani on Monday, Chief Mbangiseni Masia said: “We have decided to put our differences aside and hang up the demarcation matter until after the local government elections in 2021. We have not completely closed down the matter…
– news@citizen.co.za
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