Accusations of municipal misconduct reached boiling point when Eastern Cape Housing MEC Nombulelo Mabandla gave a short speech to residents of Eluxolweni at the Arda Centre on Thursday afternoon.
Accusations of municipal misconduct reached boiling point when Eastern Cape Housing MEC Nombulelo Mabandla gave a short speech to residents of Eluxolweni at the Arda Centre on Thursday afternoon.
After her address, in which she repeated most of what she told the business sector and municipality ealier in the day, a resident angrily piped up that there is too much corruption in the municipality and councillors sell houses illegally to people they know and that bribes are often accepted. Mabandla had mentioned this in her address, saying briefly that the provincial government is aware of corruption and that "we will deal with it".
However, the residents didn’t accept her vague promise and started shouting at her. Ward 3 councillor Zamuxolo Peter intervened, saying that they plan to return in October with a full report on the residents’ queries. This didn’t appear to appease the residents or cool their hot tempers so when the MEC got up to leave, she found herself surrounded by a mob of angry residents demanding that corrupt officials be dealt with.
Wearing green overalls, worker boots and a hard hat, Mabandla resorted to watching the commotion from inside her Mercedes after spending only a few minutes with the residents, leaving Peter and Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana to deal with the situation.
Peter tried to calm them down but could barely be heard speaking into his microphone over the loud voices of the angry residents demanding to be listened to. The meeting was meant to be for Eloxolweni residents only so when Hlalani residents also started demanding that their issues be addressed, Peter told them that there must have been ”a miscommunication”. He then advised the residents that Ward 8 councillor Nomazwi Fuku would go to Eluxolweni to deal with their queries. Unsatisfied with his response, one resident shouted: “U Fuku uyabaleka!” (Fuku is never available!)
At around 4pm, Mabandla was escorted to Fingo Village to address Fingo residents outside Luvuyo Hall who had been waiting for her since 2.30pm.
"The man who came with the MEC said that she would not give speeches, she would only listen to residents, because it’s late and she has to go," said one resident. "The residents were not happy because they wanted an explanation and the mayor then said that he was going to organise a meeting with the residents," he said, adding that Mabandla only spent about ten minutes with the residents who had waited over two hours for her.
Most of these two hours were spent with the business sector and the municipality at the council chamber room at a briefing session chaired by Peter, which began an hour behind schedule.
Mabandla visited Makana to address housing challenges including spending of funds allocated for housing. The business sector, represented by Mxolisi Dyibishe, the president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) for the Cacadu district, noted that the awarding of tenders to non-local contractors leaves local contractors without work.
Urging businesses to understand that they have to compete, Mabandla also came down hard on the municipality for not helping emerging contractors to register to the department’s database and for not taking the administration of housing beneficiaries seriously which leaves municipalities with “long lists of beneficiaries waiting for houses although there are plenty of houses yet to be occupied”.
She urged the municipality to form project steering committees to deal with what the municipality refers to as “arrogant contractors” appointed by the provincial government and who refuse to take into account the municipality’s queries or concerns.
“There is no way that a contractor is not accountable to the municipality if they are building in Makana,” Mabandla assured. She also said that the municipality needs to be more visible and monitor projects closely, adding that "inspectors must be on site, not in the office".
