Unrest sparks need to talk

Polokwane’s City of Stars image is being tarnished by a host of service delivery issues requiring urgent action by the municipality.
Spokesperson for Polokwane Municipality, Thipa Selala said on Monday that the municipality will engage the community at its earliest convenience after residents of Serala View and Fauna and Flora Park allegedly burned tyres and blockaded streets early on Monday morning, sparking a need for decisive engagement with communities about service delivery issues. Selala, however, did not answer his mobile phone on Tuesday or Wednesday (yesterday) morning to provide an update.
The dissatisfaction were apparently about a number of issues which included water shortages, electricity cut-offs, lack of jobs and opportunities and employment of undocumented workers by the optic fibre installation contractor Vumatel.
Tyres were burned in Serala View and at the corner of Webster and MacDonald streets as well as in the vicinity of the dam in Flora Park. Around 06:30, police and municipal workers were clearing the debris to allow motorists to use the streets again.
Provincial Police Communications Head Motlafela Mojapelo confirmed that the police assisted municipal personnel to deal with the matter and that the situation was peaceful and under control since after the intervention on Monday. No major damage was caused and no arrests have been made, according to Mojapelo.
A resident condemned the burning of tyres and said that there were other means of voicing dissatisfaction. “Street surfaces were damaged and public resources had to be deployed to clean up. Why do we have to pay for this?” the irate resident asked and added that persons damaging municipal property should face the might of the law.
Vumatel spokesperson Daniel Cowen’s mobile phone accepted messages but no response had been received at the time of going to print.

Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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