Lolo Madonsela
AbaQulusi Local Municipality (ALM) has recently appointed contractors who will commence with the road construction in Ward 4, 13 and 15.
The municipality will be spending well above R6 million on the development of these three areas, with Ward 4 receiving R1,297,973.74; Ward 13 R2,848,940.16; and Ward 15 R2,101,196.62.
Acting Mayor Mncedisi Maphisa has been visiting these areas for sod turning and officially handing projects over to contractors to commence work. Two of the projects are expected to be completed in four months, and one in seven months.
Maphisa added that Covid-19 has posed major setbacks regarding the timelines and plans of all operations but “as committed servants of the community, we have risen above the circumstances and have found ways to ensure that service delivery continues to reach our communities efficiently and without fail. This past week, three sod turnings were successfully held in three wards within our municipality. We first visited Ward 15, where we officially introduced the contractors who will build a road worth R2,101,196.62 for the people of Emhlangeni. Thereafter, we visited the community of King Bhekuzulu in Ward 13 and introduced the contractors who will build a road worth R2,848,940.16. On Friday last week, we visited the Empongoza community under Ward 4, where a contractor to build a road worth R1,297,973.74 was delivered as well”.
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Maphisa continued to say, “The above three sod turnings were just a part of the great developments we are planning for the people of AbaQulusi. What we are committed to doing for the people is to create jobs through service delivery programmes and infrastructure development, and to also achieve major infrastructural developments that are linked to Local Economic Development. These roads that are being constructed will be a link for the previously disadvantaged rural villages to our local town. Construction of these roads will also create jobs for our people and we hope it will assist us in the fight against poverty and unemployment”.
Maphisa said that the municipality has set goal to reduce levels of infrastructure backlogs by providing basic services, facilities and maintaining existing infrastructure. Some of the focus areas include roads where there will be construction of new gravel roads, construction of new tarred and paved roads, construction of new causeways and spatially capture roads infrastructure.
In addition will be the maintaining of the existing roads in rural and urban areas by 2022, with the focus on upgrading gravel roads to tar, re-gravelling of roads, resealing of roads, rehabilitation of existing tar roads, as well as blading of roads.
The municipality is also targeting the building and maintaining of storm-water infrastructure, expanding sanitation accessibility in various wards, maintaining and replacing existing sanitation infrastructure, expanding water and electricity accessibility in various wards, as well as maintaining and replacing existing water infrastructure by 2022.
“We remain committed to providing services for our people and ensuring that, at all times, the needs of the people come before anything else within our municipality. The IFP Manifesto in 2016 clearly asked voters to ‘Trust Us’ in driving good governance in our municipalities, making job creation a priority in our municipalities, putting food on the table for you and speeding up the construction of roads and bridges for the safety of communities,” added Maphisa.
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