Residents of two small Eastern Cape towns have brought municipal services to their knees in Raymond Mhlaba municipality due to poor service delivery and municipal posts filled allegedly without being advertised.
Adelaide and Bedford residents closed municipal offices last week and vowed they will only open them after mayor, Bandile Ketelo addressed them. The residents’ spokesman, Lukhanyo Makinana, said two posts, one of a firefighter and another of a unit manager, were filled without being advertised.
In Bedford residents blocked the R63 with burning tyres and bricks yesterday.
Bedford residents spokesman and ANC Raymond Mhlaba sub-regional member Mpho Mahleza said they were waiting for Ketelo to accept a petition, but he did not arrive.
“Adelaide and Bedford have no street lights. The road is eroded. There is inconsistency in rubbish collection, and sometimes it goes uncollected for up to two weeks,” Makinana said.
“We want the ANC to intervene and ensure that services also go to Adelaide and Bedford. To get services we have to travel a return distance of 128km to Fort Beaufort.”
Ketelo said the two towns previously belonged to Nxuba local municipality, which was amalgamated with Nkonkobe. Nxuba municipality had service delivery backlogs, he said.
Ketelo said he had visited the affected areas to engage the leadership of the protesters. “ have also addressed the mass meetings of the communities and delegated municipal leadership to receive a petition. have set up a task team and currently, the officials of the municipality are addressing all the complaints raised in those meetings,” he said.
He said the unit manager was employed when Adelaide residents complained that there is no order in the office.
“ was tasked to normalise the situation, and employed a manager on contract to take charge and stabilise the situation. This is not unusual. The municipality has many officials who are employed on temporary short contracts to perform various tasks,” Ketelo said.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed they would visit the area after receiving complaints. He said councillors who were sent to listen to the community were arrested. He said Malinzi interdicted the councillors and had them arrested for entering the municipal offices.
“I have never heard of councillors being arrested for going to their place of work with police being called by the person they are supposed to hold accountable.
“That is why next Wednesday we will go there and speak to the troika, the ANC caucus and the residents of that area,” he said.
Ngcukayitobi said he was told of alleged nepotism at the municipality.
He warned that should any of their deployees be found to be in the wrong, “we will deal with them like a dog deals with a bone”. — zolilem@tisoblackstar.co.za
Residents fight back over services
Adelaide and Bedford residents closed municipal offices last week and vowed they will only open them after mayor, Bandile Ketelo addressed them. The residents’ spokesman, Lukhanyo Makinana, said two posts, one of a firefighter and another of a unit manager, were filled without being advertised.
In Bedford residents blocked the R63 with burning tyres and bricks yesterday.
Bedford residents spokesman and ANC Raymond Mhlaba sub-regional member Mpho Mahleza said they were waiting for Ketelo to accept a petition, but he did not arrive.
“Adelaide and Bedford have no street lights. The road is eroded. There is inconsistency in rubbish collection, and sometimes it goes uncollected for up to two weeks,” Makinana said.
“We want the ANC to intervene and ensure that services also go to Adelaide and Bedford. To get services we have to travel a return distance of 128km to Fort Beaufort.”
Ketelo said the two towns previously belonged to Nxuba local municipality, which was amalgamated with Nkonkobe. Nxuba municipality had service delivery backlogs, he said.
Ketelo said he had visited the affected areas to engage the leadership of the protesters. “ have also addressed the mass meetings of the communities and delegated municipal leadership to receive a petition. have set up a task team and currently, the officials of the municipality are addressing all the complaints raised in those meetings,” he said.
He said the unit manager was employed when Adelaide residents complained that there is no order in the office.
“ was tasked to normalise the situation, and employed a manager on contract to take charge and stabilise the situation. This is not unusual. The municipality has many officials who are employed on temporary short contracts to perform various tasks,” Ketelo said.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed they would visit the area after receiving complaints. He said councillors who were sent to listen to the community were arrested. He said Malinzi interdicted the councillors and had them arrested for entering the municipal offices.
“I have never heard of councillors being arrested for going to their place of work with police being called by the person they are supposed to hold accountable.
“That is why next Wednesday we will go there and speak to the troika, the ANC caucus and the residents of that area,” he said.
Ngcukayitobi said he was told of alleged nepotism at the municipality.
He warned that should any of their deployees be found to be in the wrong, “we will deal with them like a dog deals with a bone”. — zolilem@tisoblackstar.co.za
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