Residents of KaBokweni, near White River in Mpumalanga, have shared their frustrations on the delivery of basic services with the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane during her visit to the area.
Their major concerns included a lack of water and proper road infrastructure.
Residents claim that they have to use their last money to buy water for their daily needs.
“We are experiencing water challenges, poor road infrastructure… the roads are riddled with potholes, there are also no job opportunities, we are suffering. The road was damaged in 2000, but nothing was done to fix it, they also constructed a tarred road, but it’s in a poor condition,” says one frustrated resident.
Mkhwebane also engaged with provincial government authorities as part of a stakeholders’ roadshow.
These included Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, Speaker of the Legislature, members of the Executive Council and the provincial House of Traditional Leaders.
The Public Protector says although the provincial government partners with traditional leaders, they have no service delivery agreement.
“What we heard is that they do conduct inspections and oversight visits, and they submit those reports to government which they don’t get feedback on, so we have engaged the speaker and the premier to make sure that is done. We will still write to the speaker and premier so that they respond to those challenges,” adds Mkhwebane.
PP @AdvBMkhwebane and DPP Adv. Kholeka Gcaleka have concluded their meeting the House of Traditional Leaders in Nelspruit, where they stressed the need for government to work in a non-fragmented way, in the spirit of cooperative governance to address service delivery issues. https://t.co/ek1qE4hQZK pic.twitter.com/eRoLMU9bv5
— Public Protector SA (@PublicProtector) March 14, 2022
