With only a few days to go before the Local Government Elections, residents of Mashishing and Sabie are eager to vote and bring in a local government that they hope will deliver services to the community.
This is despite the poor service delivery by the Thaba Chweu Municipality in Mpumalanga.
The residents feel the municipality has failed them for years.
The shortage of water, lack of housing, electricity and poor road infrastructure are some of the grievances.
The municipality is still unable to service the debt of over R900-million it owes to Eskom.
Residents say they have had enough of politicians who only feed their stomachs.
Just like in many communities, Mashishing residents still travel a long distance to collect clean drinking water.
“Arrogance of political leadership”
The state of the municipality is a cause for concern.
Efforts were made by community activists to engage the Thaba Chweu Municipality to deliver services to the people, but there has been no improvement.
These issues have also been reported to the Human Rights Commission. The municipality was also invited to make its submission to the Commission but failed to attend.
Kellysville Community Forum George Viljoen says service delivery is hampered by the arrogance of the political leadership.
“We are still sitting with the same problems in the area Mashishing and in town. The most concerning is the sewer spillages, the non-functional sewer plant. The other issues are the potholes affecting our motorists in tow. They are currently busy with one or two streets but we are asking the question why now before the elections for all the community members of Lydenburg, Mashishing and Thaba Chweu? It feels like a catch because we are going for local elections,” says Viljoen.
Irregular, wasteful expenditure
The municipality is one of the struggling municipalities.
In the past, it has been faced with the incurring of irregular and wasteful expenditure.
But Mayor Friddah Nkadimeng feels that there has been an improvement.
“We have already electrified 248 households and this has been done phase one and we are having another informal settlement which is called Nkanini which has 165 households and we managed to electrify 117 households in phase one.”
Nkadimeng acknowledges Eskom’s debt but remains adamant that they will retain their seats after the elections.
“Indeed, we are having an Eskom debt that is amounting to R997-million to date. We are managing to pay the current account; we are struggling with arrears. The members of the ANC are speaking to the people one-on-one and they don’t have a problem voting for the ANC again to power. We are speaking to them, we are explaining to them, we make them understand why our municipality is in this status and they are ready, and we are combat-ready. Come the first of November the ANC is going to come out victorious.”
The Municipality has 14 wards and 27 seats in the council.
In the 2016 municipal election, the ANC won the majority of seats with 14 seats, followed by the DA with four, and the EFF with two seats.
The Bushbuckridge Residents Association has got one seat.
Thaba Chweu residents to vote in hopes of service delivery:
