Agang SA leader, Andries Tlouamma, says his party will ensure that communities in mineral-rich Sekhukhune district of Limpopo get employment opportunities in surrounding mines, once voted into power. He visited Tjate village, outside Burgersfort, as part of his electioneering campaign ahead of the May elections.
Although Tlouamma arrived later than the scheduled time, he was warmly welcomed by his supporters. He flew into the Tjate village in a helicopter. He says the area is neglected and lacks effective service delivery.
AGANGSA leader Andries Tlouamma arrives at Tlate village in the Sekhukhune district of Limpopo in style. He promised his supporters jobs and better services if elected during up coming elections #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/bkejWKE4Kf
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Tlouamma lamented the high unemployment in the area despite the entire Sekhukhune district being surrounded by platinum and chrome mines. He hopes to change all that, if voted into power.
“Driekop, Jane Furse and Burgerfort; these are the areas which are surrounded by the mines. Our problem is that you can’t have these areas which are surrounded by the mines and yet you have such a high percentage of unemployment especially young people. Our message is clear, unemployment must be declared a national crisis and it must start in the rural areas. We cannot have our people flocking from their areas of birth to the cities while there are mines here. Who is benefiting from these mines, who is making money out of this mines? You can look at this area nobody cares about it, it’s like people are forgotten here.”
Tlouamma says Agang SA’s election manifesto, which will be launched on the 23 March in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, will focus on job creation and reviving of the economy.
“We are going to focus on the economy because we believe that there must be radical steps that we take so that we create a rural economy. The economy must respond to the needs of our people, either in the urban or in the rural areas. Our message is economy, but we also want to emphasise agriculture. Before democracy, before even the Europeans came into Africa; our people sustained themselves through agriculture, so we need to bring that spirit of working hard on the land.”
Meanwhile, Agang SA supporters say they want the party to attend to problems of bad road infrastructure and poor cell phone networks. They also want the Tjate heritage site to be properly maintained. They say the statue of King Sekhukhune is placed at a poorly regulated heritage site.
“I want Agang SA to develop the heritage site of Tjate because the government has put the statue at Tjate, but there is no development at the heritage site.”
“If Agang they can try to build the reception, we don’t have network, even now you can see there is no network.”
“I’m saying to Agang please try to build the bridge at Nkiliketjane village, we don’t have a road.”
Various political parties have started with their election campaigns ahead of the May polls. The actual date of the elections has not yet been announced. – Additional reporting by Aluwani Mantsha.
