LIMPOPO – THOUSANDS of people embarked on a protest march to hand over a memorandum to a department of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs (Coghsta) delegation in Vuwani near Thohoyandou on Friday.
The people demanded that their villages to be excluded from the list of villages that will fall under the new municipality that is reportedly going to be formed in the area.
The senior traditional leader, Nthumeni Masia, of the Masia Territorial Council, said he was shocked at, and disbelieving of, the announcement by the leader of the so-called ‘Vuwani Demarcation Task Team’ that purported to speak on behalf of villagers and claimed that communities in and around Vuwani wanted to join a new municipality.
Masia further said the claim made by the task team that they had consulted the communities was a lie.
“We didn’t see the task team coming to Ha-Masia, Ha-Davhana, Tshimbupfe, Ha-Nesengani or other villages. The task team is worse than the destroyed structures of Apartheid. Any attempt to represent our views without proper mandate is an act of criminality, insensitivity and greed at the expense of the needs of our communities,” he said. “The task team is an agent; the members are provocateurs, losers and greedy people who appear to have been promised positions regardless of communities’ interest. We haven’t found any persuasive reasons to start thinking of being involved in the establishment of the new municipality, or to be part of it. Our people haven’t met with this bogus leadership that claims to exist within our communities,” he said.
“Our people don’t know about the existence of the so-called Vuwani Demarcation Task Team. Such a structure, that misleads our people, is an outcast and we all denounce it. Their proposal is based on personal desires for self-aggrandisement at the expense of our people. Our people will remain in the Makhado Municipality.
All CV’s attempts to track down any members of the task team for comment failed. Makhado Municipality spokesperson, Louis Bobodi, said officially the municipality had no knowledge of the task team. He said the municipality first became aware of such a structure during a public particaption session in Thohoyandou two weeks ago.
The chief whip of the ANC in Vhembe, Tshifhiwa Dali, received the memorandum on behalf of Coghsta MEC, Makoma Makhurupetje. He said the memorandum would be taken to the MEC’s office.
