Malamulele schools burn as own muni is denied

A THIRD school was ablaze in Malamulele at the time of going to print on Tuesday, in spite of the large contingent of police officials present in the Malamulele area after the administration blocks of Malamulele and Gijana high schools caught fire on Monday night.

According to provincial police spokesperson, Col Ronél Otto, the police were awaiting the results of their forensic team’s investigation.

She said the possibility that these incidents were arson, had not been excluded yet.

She further said the situation in Malamulele was quiet, but tense.

The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) refused the application for Malamulele to be granted a stand-alone municipality on Friday, saying the proposal was not viable and not consistent with demarcation criteria. During a press briefing held at the premier’s office in Polokwane, MDB chairperson Jane Thupana said the MDB was governed by the Local Government Municipal Demarcation Act (27 of 1998) which provided the demarcation objectives and all factors to be taken into account whenever the board considered any determination or redetermination of municipal boundaries.

She said the key factors included financial viability, administrative capacity, the consequences of the boundary redetermination on existing municipalities and the need to rationalise the total number of municipalities.

“This matter was not a determination or redetermination as the timeframes of the MDB had already closed when the proposal came from Malamulele,” Thupana said.

Cooperative governance and traditional affairs deputy minister, Andries Nel, said out of 278 municipalities in South Africa, 90 were dysfunctional and the other 188 were also not getting the basics right.

Cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs MEC, Makoma Makhurupetje, said the Limpopo government would study the MDB’s report. She said they would work with the Malamulele task team to restore calm in the area, after the total shutdown of Malamulele and the angry reaction by residents on hearing the board’s decision.

Malamulele task team spokesperson, Dr Isaiah Ndhambhi said they were disappointed that they had not won their own municipality as they had hoped.

“I plead with Malamulele residents to keep their cool. We shall win sometime in the future and then we will be a great municipality,” Ndhambhi said.

Ndhambhi reported back to the community on the MDB’s decision. He told residents that the MDB had told him that their issue could not be resolved at present, since cooperative government and traditional affairs minister, Pravin Gordhan, needed to finalise the liquidation of some municipalities in the country.

“I am told that the liquidation process will be completed by June. We will then be required to reapply for a separate municipality in our area before August,” he said.

The Malamulele task team’s was given a 39-page document that explained in detail why Malamulele could not have municipality at this stage. “We could not finish reading the document with the board. We need time to study it and understand it better before we report back to you,” Dr Jan Nkuna, Malamulele task team secretary, told residents.

The community was divided on the way forward. The task team wanted to suspend the shutdown and wait until June before they tried to force the government to grant them a separate municipality, while many residents had opinions that differed from the task team’s.

Some argued that if the municipalities in question were indeed being liquidated and a new municipality formed, the problems would continue as the same people run the liquidated municipalities would be running the new one. “This will ensure that we continue to be sidelined because jobs and services will continue to go to certain people while others languish in poverty,” one resident said.

A unanimous decision on the way forward was eventually made, and it was decided that the shutdown would continue for a week while the Malamulele task team studied the MDB document, after which the situation would be re-evaluated.