A democratic Municipality

A democratic Municipality enjoys the full participation of its constituencies in service delivery. Unlike in football or any other sport, the community are the players and administrators turn spectators and not vice versa. Less is achieved if the community is reluctant to be aggressively involved, creative, and innovative and push for what is to satisfy their needs through its administrators. It’s a municipality for the community and with the community.
The first issue herewith does not need either the eMalahleni Municipal Manager, nor the Traffic Directorate or a Ward Councillor to make it work hence my concern as an individual. It needs the community with foresight to ease economic bottlenecks, traffic jam puzzles or our visitor’s frustrations on our local poor time management.
The community herewith, especially Thushanang, Ackerville, Lynnville, Schoongezicht and all other areas using the Pretoria Memorial Cemetery are challenged to ruminate over the traffic jam on funeral days and take a long lasting solution.
An economic route joining the taxi commuter to the CBD at peek hours goes through a frustrating time consuming heavy convoy slowly pushing its way to the entrance of the cemetery. Even the “ubuntu” concept loses its impact when the taxi driver dovetails or jackknifes through the mourning convoy to avoid insults and harsh words from his/her late-to-work passengers or cohorts.
A workable solution will be the community’s initiative to request all mourners to use the two, three or so train busses that could have been secured by the bereaved family. Better to have three or four busses from church or hall than fifty or so single passenger cars, some with only the driver jam-packing the graveyard to the frustration of the funeral undertakers who are on a business programme controlled by time.
After the burial the busses will ferry and drop off the mourners back to church or civic hall where the parked fifty or so cars will drive to the bereaved family’s place of residence.
Someone is worried about the bus costs. A contribution of about R2 or so per person collected by the bereaved family at the bus entrance will be more than “ubuntu”. Someone is worried about parked vehicle security; the bereaved family will have plans too.
This will be less traffic congestion; it will be business as usual on our confined routes, and a smile on the face of Funeral Directors who will meet their funeral commitments.
Future chances of everyone owning and driving a car to the cemetery are possible, and chances of our traffic coming to a dead standstill are possible too.
The same initiative can be employed to Kromdraai Cemetery forcing a convoy to utilise the national freeway which, when developing new extensions, local authorities faced national road agency heavy restrictions due to municipalities not being responsible to maintain them. Theirs was to construct roads leading to these extensions to evade convoys on national routes constructed for 120km speed limits.
The 2016 buzzword is local government “elections”. Whether in politics, church, business, school and sports administration, NGOs or even stokvels, you mention the word “elections”; eyes go red and wide open. It’s a surprise call out to half-asleep incumbents who think this would be the time never to be missed to secure a lucrative position albeit one’s competence, capacity and suitability.
The electorates will realise only very late that incompetent people were pushed in without debating their profiles or track records other than being comrades (distorted meaning) and possible chances of them being capable to deliver.
It is not the elected Councillor who fails to deliver but the community which fails to elect a Councillor who is not a work-seeker, opportunist, cheque collector, stokvel member or a lie factory operator. These are not derogatory statements but luckily self-uttered by elected Councillors through frustrations.

A challenge to you ambitious Councillors is, there are potholes all over eMalahleni City. Whether you move around the elite upper areas or squatter camps, you encounter decorative potholes. But there are no road burning tyres and rocks in upper elite suburbs, only around squatter camps or the so-called locations.
This critique eMalahleni community, fails itself by electing people who, within few days after elections crucify them as incompetent, heartless, myopic and political imbeciles to the total disappointment of Mpumalanga as a Province. The new Municipal Manager Mr. Janse van Vuuren sees this not as a job but a “calling”. What a premonition! Wish all were called.
In his 2015 Xmas message, the new Municipal Manager classifies eMalahleni as the economic capital of the Province only now. It’s a pity. It has been the business hub from time immemorial; unfortunately the administrators brought it down to its crawling knees and cannot match with new aggressive neighbouring towns.
2015 has seen eMalahleni business crushed, battered and crumbled from foundation of its big industries like Evraz Highveld, Vanchem, Samancor Group and the volatile coal mining sector whilst a new economic beehive swarm raises its attention just at the back yard of eMalahleni namely Kusile Power Station. Make no mistake, 2016 Recession is no more knocking at the door but kicking at the door.
It is only the eMalahleni business visionaries who will drive business to its rightful strategic corner than concentrate on splinter groups trying to destroy the same cake meant for the long term survival of eMalahleni residents. Unity is as foreign as the cake itself.
A new tide sweeping eMalahleni’s religious terrain suffers an influx of new missionaries for an explosive evangelistic outreach like a big storm blowing dry leaves from dead trees. It ends up with less spiritual revival when the repentant and converted move from this door to the next double door, this freewill offering dish to the next bowl or basket, this nametag to the next attractive name all in search of the easy quick way to Heaven.
The challenge stems from new entrant crusades of last week counting hundred fold bigger than the conventional fifty-year-old crusaders. Debates on church growth now become a Sunday school topic.

God forbids, let it be a spiritual warfare to protect the inhabitants of eMalahleni and restore stability in the spread of the Good News. eMalahleni was founded on religious principles, ethics and morals, whether Muslim, Christian, or African tradition, conflicts remained theological debates.

History reminds me that many years back we allocated church sites gratis to qualifying denominations. Selling God’s Land is a sign of a sick administration when members of those denominations buy developed stands from the same municipality and need a place to worship the Creator who gave them the land, eMalahleni. Service costs can be settled but God’s Land becomes our Canaan. Otherwise if it is another way of collecting bridging funds for the fiscal from the stressed community putting church sites on tender to the highest bidding congregation.
Most will end up renting and leasing school classrooms, open football grounds, domestic garages, the pastor’s kitchen or dining room. This is the Pastors’ Fraternal territory to explore.
eMalahleni sits with a pool of nationally acclaimed educators who can turn the wheel and empower this city educationally. If only its stakeholders will poke this educational gold mine or should I say coalmine through PEU, Naptosa, Sactu, you name them. The coming generation wants to take be agog and compile biographies where it fits.
Our educational nurture will yield good fruits in sports, cultural development, crime curtailment, drug derailment, moral and ethical, societal destruction, job opportunities, creativity, retention of “ubuntu” principles towards marriage, imported abortion, immoral western civilization and political jargon where the poor and underprivileged are trampled on.
Land invasion is a scurry crucial nightmare to eMalahleni when capitalists explored all minerals around especially coal which, if located close to your kitchen door, you will have to vacate running away from the draglines and trench diggers. Or you will listen to cracked window panes and running open wall lines when the blasting rocks your shaky house. We end up being caught with our pants down when people invade land Canaan or did they run from Egypt?
Those who think more backyard rooms will ease our housing shortage face the might of the law of being forced to rezone their erfs to business sites, the creation of this demon is now where to go for habitation?
Who, in five years’ time from today is to blame for poor town planning whilst our city Mayor commits herself to royal ceremonial functions of dishing out sweets and popcorns to kindergarten, blankets and toiletries to old people? But lo, burning issues still remain with a growing traffic frustration when from N2 freeway to Matthew Phosa Street extensions take thirty minutes at knock off times and morning get to work times. Same with Ogies/N4 off ramps or OR Tambo/N4 crossover. The car population is overtaking our stagnant brains at high speeds.
Sewerage breathe and cutting smells on N2 passing Ferrobank off ramps and Pineridge/Klarinet thoroughfares makes us wonder for how long will we postpone our wedding and birthday parties? We failed to enjoy our best Christmas meals. Burst clean water pipes are exceeding our domestic garden watering costs. Storm water drainage blockading rainwater so as to travel at the same speed with traffic to Kalkspruit whilst road construction will sign tenders for temporary rehabilitation.
One will wonder from where to where one can say this is the CBD? Any future plans for its revamp or urban renewal? Or is it planned to be a glorified squatter camp where municipal bylaws and regulations fail to be implemented effectively?
Environmental activist with corner to corner rubbish damps created by insufficient waste collecting trucks, have stopped taking pictures. Recyclers have found a goldmine albeit it’s unhealthy mine rubbish dump. Dogs have their sniffing at full work and rodents have established their squatter camp. People do not want to live with dirt, the only thing they would do is to drop it where it will attract the municipality’s attention. But does it? Health risks to children are for the department of health to determine.
What are mitigating factors to assure the eMalahleni Youth, our future Councillors and Mayors that at the end of the tunnel, job opportunities are massive to coincide with the notion that eMalahleni is the business HUB of Mpumalanga? This includes our future economists (entrepreneurs), scientists, professors, legal gurus who will be collecting their impressive Grade 12 certificates this month whilst their retrenched parents can only wish for some Good Samaritan to come to their rescue.
A deterrent to social and economic growth of any town is its relaxed approach to curb crime. As soon as we hear statements from eMalahleni administrators that dead dark street lights played no role in break-ins and rape in affected areas, we get perturbed and it is a shocking response. Otherwise we do not need street lights, more so when during daylight they are on full beam but dead at night.
Substance abuse nationally still rates eMalahleni number two in South Africa, a price award we are not proud off. We need a pastoral intervention since our progeny is affected and doomed to fail to achieve their dreams in life.
This is a 2016 grocery list to subvert those violent toy-tooi and boycotts actions which are retrogressive otherwise eMalahleni faces myriads of possibilities.