Mayor Thabethe sheds light on issues in Lekwa

He was born in South Western Townships, Soweto as famously known, however, before he knew it, he was in Standerton.

He is the father of four and loves spending time with his children whenever he gets the time.

He is a proud supporter of Kaizer Chiefs and an avid lover of gospel music and hip-hop.

Who is this man?

It is the executive mayor of Lekwa Municipality, Louis Thabethe.

The Standerton Advertiser had a chat with this soft-spoken giant about life and politics. In a conversation meant to profile him as a person, it, however, steered into politics.

Thabethe told the Standerton Advertiser it was impossible to focus on his life without talking politics, as politics is a big part of his life.

He was introduced to politics while in high school when he was an SRC president and a member of the Standerton Youth Club.

Thabethe was the youngest mayor in the country when he took office in 2000. He said after leaving the mayoral office; he was a legal researcher in Limpopo working with former minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi. He was also involved in business. This was when he and other business people formed the Lekwa Community Forum in 2020.

The forum’s mission was to fix what was broken in Lekwa.

In August 2021, they officially registered the Lekwa Community Forum (LCF) as a political party.

“We felt that mainstream political parties were collapsing in this municipality. We consulted with the community and they told us that once we get into the council, we must raise issues of the community and not work with the ANC,” Thabethe said.

He stated the LCF did not have a budget and community members assisted them.

“Come voting time, there were glitches with the IEC. Some people were turned back because the IEC told them they were voting at the wrong voting stations, and this frustrated most of our voters. We believed our numbers could have been more.”

He said the LCF had to form an alliance with other parties such as the DA, EFF, ATM and FF Plus.

“The LCF could not achieve the mission of saving this town alone. That is why we consulted with other parties and found common ground on many issues.

“When we assumed office, the municipality was a total mess; the workers were on strike for months. It was dysfunctional. We inherited a lot of problems that still exist even today.”

Thabethe said the municipality owed Eskom billions and could only afford to pay R500 000 a month and it could not afford to pay its creditors.

“It was like Hollywood. There was an acting speaker, acting whip, acting MMC. We filled the open vacancies to put a system in place because the municipality was unstable. The council was not sitting, and we had to ensure political stability,” he said.

Thabethe said another stumbling block was revenue collection, as it was low and had to be improved because the municipality was not rendering services to the people.

“We had to appoint an evaluator to bill residents correctly and tackle illegal electricity connections. We had to install smart meters to ensure residents pay for electricity. Our payment rate has gone up to 86%, but we want it to be more than that.

“We are currently paying Eskom R15m every month, but this is a drop in the ocean because of high-interest rates.”

Thabethe said the municipality is taking part in a debt relief plan with Eskom to get the debt written off.

They want the municipality to get a clean audit and get out of the disclaimer to ensure that the municipality is functional, and it is moving in the right direction.

“We have areas that have taps, but these taps ran dry 15 years ago because of the previous management.

“Our water treatment plant, planned in the 1950s, was never upgraded and not maintained. There are currently workers on site attending to the problem of water.

“The plant uses electricity and does not have generators, so when there is load-shedding, the pipes flush back the water. Once the electricity is restored, the water comes back with mud because the pipes are old and made of asbestos,” explained Thabethe.

Mayor Thabethe commended businesses in Standerton for helping the municipality by investing in water infrastructure.

He added he is declaring war on the road infrastructure in Lekwa Municipality.

“We are a big entry point to other provinces and thus have a lot of traffic in this town.

“We had a railway line that used to transport goods to other provinces, but now that the railway line is gone. All the trucks are now on our roads, not designed to accommodate a high number of trucks and cars passing through. We are waiting for the premier of Mpumalanga to proclaim that the roads in

Lekwa Municipality are handed back to SANRAL so that they can be re-designed,” he said.

According to Thabethe, the programme of patching potholes will begin at the end of October and the municipality will advertise vacancies of qualified people to assist in re-designing the road infrastructure.

He said plans are underway to pave roads in townships.

Thabethe came under fire because he attended the South African Municipal Sports and Recreation Association Games in Durban last week and allegedly used the municipality’s money to attend the games.

In his defence, Mayor Thabethe said, “I paid for my own flights and accommodation. I have receipts to prove it. You can contact the airline and the hotel in Durban to confirm it. I had to attend those games, as I needed to support our employees.

“These are the workers, the community insults when they attend to a leaking pipe or an electricity issue. The worker wellness programme is very important.
“We wanted them to come back with a positive mindset, because the morale of the Lekwa municipal employees is low, and we want to change that,” added Thabethe.

He further stated all the political parties, including the DA, were there when attending the games in Durban was discussed. None of the parties opposed the motion.

“I respect the DA. They are an integral part of this municipality and we value their experience,”, concluded Thabethe.