BETHAL – A Plea from residents and businesses for intervention into the lack of services in Bethal and eMzinoni might have finally been heard.
However, this will require the entire community to come together and take back a once proud town from the claws of the Govan Mbeki Municipality.
A committee comprising of residents and local businesses people from both eMzinoni, Bethal and Milan Park, has been formed and will now be known as the Bethal & eMzinoni Community for Service Association.
This association has already begun the process of taking legal action against GMM.
This comes after residents have been fighting endless battles about no electricity, no water, poor road conditions, sewerage problems and lack of general, paid for, service delivery.
“We all have the same goals in mind. We want to tackle our current situation and the years of lack of services. We feel Bethal is getting the short end of the stick from GMM.
“Our electricity, sewage and water systems are on the brink of collapse,” said Mr Ziyaad Dangor, media spokesperson for the Bethal & eMzinoni Community for Service Association.
“We have tried to communicate with the municipality, but to no avail. I have personally invited the mayor on WhatsApp to meet; she has read my messages but simply ignores me.
“We have received no communication from any Ward councillor. So now we have been left to fend for ourselves, therefore we have begun the process of legal action against GMM.”
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MacRobert Attorneys, based in Pretoria, were instructed to commence with legal action against GMM.
However, this will be costly, especially once this matter reaches the High Court. The Bethal & eMzinoni Community for Service Association believes this is the only legal route that can be taken.
“We need the community to help with funds. We are going to need money to fight the municipality,” said Mr Dangor.
“Legal action is our only sustainable option at this stage and it is costly; therefore we will require that every community member participate in our crowd funding initiative by contributing funds within their means to our cause.”
According to the Mr Dangor the money will be transparently managed within proper governance protocols. These funds belong to the community that contributed.
Once the administration has been completed, they will lodge their request to the community for contributions.
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Mr Dangor assured residents that businesses and residents on the committee are backing this process all the way.
“We are going to have an independent auditor or accounting firm who will be running all the finances for us.
“People will be depositing the money into this account and at a touch of a button they will have access to exact funds received and funds used. Everything is going to be transparent. We will be using the right processes and protocols to run this.”
With a committee of about 14 people representing Bethal, eMzinoni and Milan Park, a management team was appointed. They are Mr Yusuf Carrim as chairman, Mr Jaap Pretorius as deputy chairman, Ms Marilè Nieuwoudt as secretary, Ms Marietjie Fourie as treasurer and Mr Ziyaad Dangor as spokesman.
The management team had their first consultation with MacRobert Attorneys and they are very confident that Bethal has a strong case to take GMM to task.
“We have to resolve the maintenance and lack of service delivery issues of Bethal. We might request that Bethal not form a part of GMM anymore, but this is total different process on its own. This is our long-term directive.
“We need to bring GMM or the provincial sector to the fold or forefront to come and look after Bethal and sort out our problems.”
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Mr Dangor assured the community that the Bethal & eMzinoni Community for Service Association is a non-political, non-racial and non-sexist association. He further said that this is an association that is not only for Bethal residents but includes residents of eMzinoni.
“People have been talking and threatening. We have gotten to the point where we appointed a legal firm and we are now going the legal route.”
He said that there was always talk and no action and this was due to not knowing what action could be taken.
The association is now following the route of that of Grahamstown who had taken their municipality to court and had actually won their court battle.
“This is not a process that will be turned overnight with success. It is going to be a process that has to be followed. It could be months before we can see any form of results.
“We need you as the community to stand behind us with financial and moral support through this drive, because without those factors we will cave in.”
If you want to know more about the Bethal & eMzinoni Community for Service Association, you can join their Facebook page or WhatsApp Bethal Plan of Action Group at 076 836 3834.
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