Utrecht residents bar municipal workers entry
"The deputy mayor called the community for a meeting but there were no resolutions..."
The community of Utrecht have this morning (January 20) embarked on peaceful strike action, and prevented municipal workers from entering the Emadlangeni Municipality premises.
Among the community’s grievances is alleged poor service delivery. Utrecht resident and AfriForum member, Riana Homann said there had looming problems at the municipality for a long time:
“Last year, the Municipal Manager (MM) engaged with the community, trying to find resolutions to some of the problems. He was soon removed because he didn’t want to sign a R2-million invoice. The current acting MM was then appointed, and that same R2-million invoice was approved,” she alleged. “With that also, water and electricity services remained a problem throughout the festive season. The Deputy Mayor called the community for a meeting but there were no resolutions because the people who were supposed to answer were not there.”
Another resident, Sphamandla Nkosi said the community was unhappy with the municipality’s standard of service delivery:
“Besides the problems with basic service delivery like electricity and water, there’s R2-million that was lost in the municipality, which was supposed to paid for a feasibility study for building a mall in the town, in which the current acting MM is alleged to be part of that fraud. Why is there even so much money to be paid for just a study? Last year, Council took a resolution that the Mayor must open a case with SAPS but she never did that. We are not happy with the current acting MM; we don’t want her as MM or CFO, she must just leave!”
Emadlangeni Local Municipality’s Head of Communications, Ayanda Mabaso said he had not yet received information to report back on, while the Director of Corporate Services, Mr Mkhize said he would refer back to the media after a meeting today.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information comes in.
ALSO READ: Water supply to be interrupted in Emadlangeni (Utrecht)
Contact us
WhatsApp: 082Â 874 5550
Email: Reveshni Douglas (Editor) at reveshni@caxton.co.za
Make sure you follow us for constant updates:
