Ventersdorp residents delivered a letter to the president’s office on Tuesday, requesting them to receive a memorandum in the town on 14 May.
The picketers, consisting of residents and business people, are expected to march and hand over the memorandum to the office of the presidency at the municipal building in Ventersdorp at 11:00.
The letter addressed to Ramaphosa, reads: ‘It is with great sadness and frustration as a community of Ventersdorp to request your office to come and receive a memorandum of demands from the community of Ventersdorp. The living conditions in most households of this community have gone from worse to the extreme. The J.B. Marks Municipality is suppressive in all forms with the blessing of the provincial government.’
Khuduga Dibe, a community leader says democracy is just a pipe dream for the community of Ventersdorp, which has been forced into the stillborn merger called J.B. Marks Municipality. ‘Although the previous Ventersdorp municipality had its challenges, at least it managed, to some extent, to provide decent services to its community. Since the merger, the community knows no joy because of the never-ending service delivery failures of the new municipality,’ he said.
Khuduga says there have been broken promises. He highlighted problems like ‘electricity cut-offs, the system of 95/5 that was later reversed and the new prepaid electricity system that the community was not consulted on.’ He added that there was no fuel for the service delivery vehicles that do water and electricity maintenance last September.
‘The municipal officials from both sides are resigning in their numbers. The Ventersdorp office is now almost empty as the officials are now stationed in Potchefstroom. The merger is the reason why there are no funds available.
The development of Ventersdorp has taken a backseat as the politicians of the new municipality in Potchefstroom play power games with the development of projects that are on the verge of being implemented,’ he said.
Business people will also be part of the march
In the words of a businessman, Ernst Henning of Totpak Distillers, Monday’s march will ‘have the support of the whole population of Ventersdorp, both black and white’.
He says the whole town and the townships will stand together because the merger is not working and should be reversed.
Since the merger, the Ventersdorp residents are expected to travel to Potchefstroom and back to sort out service delivery issues, enquire about electricity bills and go to the traffic department.
‘It is the poor people who suffer the most. They have to travel and spend the whole day in Potchefstroom. We take one hour and 30 minutes to get to Potchefstroom because of the roadworks on the road. There have been terrible accidents on this road. They have been busy with it for a year and 6 months. It’s total chaos,’ he said.
Henning added that they have had numerous discussions with the municipality but nothing has borne fruit.
Financial strain for businesses
Henning says all the businesses have suffered financial losses.
‘There were days when I never had water or electricity on my business premises,’ he said. According to him, another well-known restaurant and a filling station in town had to spend about R60 000 per month on diesel for the generator because there was no electricity.
Henning says he employs 37 people and they cannot carry on like this. ‘I have to keep a water tanker to keep the business running. We have had enough. This merger has failed the community,’ he said adamantly.
He stressed that this will be a peaceful march and there will be no disruptions.
Infrastructure projects in Ventersdorp
The Herald has previously reported on infrastructure and job creation projects in Ventersdorp last year. They included the Toevlug road, a state of the art library in Tshing, 300 VIP toilets in Boikhutsong and other rural areas, an elevated steel water tank in Boikhutsong that supplies water to 581 households and other infrastructure development projects.
Khuduga says these projects had been budgeted for in the previous IDP of Ventersdorp and did not come with the merger. ‘The merger has promised a mall and other related development that we are still waiting for,’ he said, adding context.
Last month, the Herald reported that the municipality is in financial difficulty. At the time, Victor Boqo, the mayoral spokesperson, admitted that they are, indeed, facing financial instability as a result of the non-payment culture in Ventersdorp, in particular.
He said most of these households connect electricity illegally. ‘We have tried to introduce smart meter systems but the community refuses to let the service provider install them because they do not want to pay. We render basic services to all our people but we get less revenue than we pay out. The 85 per cent we get through collections is far less than we should be getting. We will be cutting the electricity of all households, government departments and businesses that owe the municipality money,’ he said. Khuduga disputed this and said there is no such thing as ‘not paying for the services’. ‘We are complaining that what we are paying for is not what we are getting in return…that is why we want our municipality back. The executive mayor is on record as saying that this merger is not working. As for the meter boxes, no proper process was followed unless they can provide us with proof,’ he said.
*At the time of print, neither the mayoral spokesperson nor the council spokesperson had responded to our media enquiries.
