The communities of Mgobhozi and Mooi (in the Mnyathi and Shoba areas, respectively) had an opportunity to engage with Speaker Michael Khumalo last week Thursday, where community members outlined their service delivery challenges. Speaker Khumalo was leading a Rapid Response team to listen to the grievances of these two communities, who indicated that they have been without electricity for a very long time; they also cited that they were facing water and roads challenges.
The Mgobhozi community added that they were also in need of RDP houses and the refurbishment of their school. Responding to the Mgobhozi community, Speaker Khumalo indicated that their grievances were not within the municipality’s jurisdiction, but affirmed that all matters will be reported to the relevant departments to ensure that they get assistance as required. “The construction of the road you are complaining about is a matter of the Provincial Department of Roads & Transport. On the water issue in this area, the supply of water falls with Zululand District Municipality; while on the issue of schools, the municipality does not build, refurbish or extend schools – that belongs to the Provincial Department of Education,” said Speaker Khumalo. “However, you had every right to report these matters to us, because our government works together; therefore we will inform all the relevant departments of the complaints we have received from you and request them to come and address you and give the correct answers that we cannot answer at this point.
We will also invite the district municipality to come and explain to you their action plan for the supply of water. “The issue of RDP houses partly falls within the municipality’s jurisdiction; however, it is a prerogative of the Provincial Department of Human Settlements. The process of this is that the department identifies the communities that will need houses, then request the municipality to donate the land where the houses will be built. However, since the land in this area belongs to you, the municipality will have to buy it from you and then donate it to the department in order to be able to build houses.
When the land belongs to the municipality, you will have to now pay rates and services like communities in the townships and in town. “This means you will not be like any other rural community that does not pay rates and services. The choice is up to you whether you are willing to sell the land to the municipality or not. Additionally, this means you will only be able to receive houses when there has been a disaster and that means not everyone will have a government house; only those affected severely by the disaster,” clarified Speaker Khumalo. In Mooi, it emerged that the contractor who was appointed to install electricity in that community did not deliver and the municipality made a loss, as the contractor’s company was liquidated through the courts. However, a new contractor has been appointed to ensure that the Mooi community gets electricity. “The contractor we have appointed is currently doing an assessment of all the households that were left behind when the first contractor was appointed. Once the assessment has been done, then the process of installing electricity will commence right away. The road that you are complaining about, we will send a team to assess whether it needs grating or it will need crusher stones; it will also be attended to as soon as possible,” said Speaker Khumalo. Both communities expressed their gratitude and cited that it was their first time having a municipal leader coming to explain things to them. “Had we had someone coming here to address us and explain to us how things work, we wouldn’t have sent grievances to the municipality but straight to the relevant departments.
We have been educated today and we now know which routes to take when we have challenges. Being informed helps to ensure that we do not end up taking to the streets to air our grievances. We really appreciate the Speaker and his team for listening to us. We are looking forward to having our demands being addressed and met as soon as possible,” said one community member.
The water is clean for consumption
Following numerous allegations by some community members that they were falling ill due to unclean water that they are consuming, the municipality took up an initiative, unannounced, to monitor its team that works with water reticulation to ensure that they follow the proper procedure and are doing the tests correctly.
The municipality can confirm that water processing is done every two hours on a daily basis. Samples from raw water up to consumer water were taken for testing and all showed that there were no bacteria and the chlorine was also balanced.
The samples were taken from one household in town, one in Bhekuzulu and one in Lakeside – all passed the test; therefore our water is good for consumption. Should there be a need to take the samples for testing at a private lab, the municipality will do so as a way of ensuring that our citizens are satisfied. The community is urged to always flush the water for at least 10 seconds before consumption to allow for any dirt or rust that might be on the tap to clean out.
Municipality receives 5000-litre honeysucker truck
On March 29, the municipality received its honeysucker truck and has already started operating, which will be great for most of our citizens in rural areas, and will address the challenge of sewer blockages.
The honeysucker truck is utilised in emptying septic tanks and it assists in unblocking sewage by pumping out filled manholes and then dumping the sewage at a waste treatment works.
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