Some residents of Cradock and Middelberg in the Eastern Cape are fed up with what they say is the failure of the Yethemba Municipality to deliver proper services. Service delivery is expected to be a key issue in the November first local government elections. The area has been hit by frequent protests.
These locals are tired of what they say are empty promises.
“We want a total change in this area because the people who are leading us are doing the same thing over and over again, we have no services rendered in the area, we have no housing. We struggle on a daily basis so with these elections we need credible leaders here and not these people who become selfish and think with their stomachs. We are calling for the national leadership to intervene. This town is falling apart and we are seeing this now for some time. We have no jobs we have no development programmes, our municipality is corrupt. Look at the drain behind me it’s spilling into the river and this is raw sewerage, we can’t live like this, something has to be done,” residents explain.
The mayor of the Inxuba Yethemba municipality, Noncedo Zonke, says they are delivering services and fulfilling their mandate.
“In all the projects that we have been mandated to do we have done them seamlessly, it is just that the media has perceived this in a wrong way so we cannot rely on that. We do deliver services to the respective wards in our community. Since we came in power in 2016, we are embarking on all these projects to ensure growth and stability in the area. We have clean audits and we are not mentioned as a dysfunctional municipality in the list of 67 municipalities that are dysfunctional,” says Zonke.
VIDEO: Cradock residents call for the dissolution of Inxuba Yethemba municipality:
