Two councillors have been ordered to apologise for missing a meeting with Eastern Cape premier Noxolo Kiviet, who also asked the Mayor some hard questions during her recent visit to Makana Municipality.
Two councillors have been ordered to apologise for missing a meeting with Eastern Cape premier Noxolo Kiviet, who also asked the Mayor some hard questions during her recent visit to Makana Municipality.
Kiviet spent the final day of her outreach visit at the end of September at the newly built Indoor Sports Centre in Joza, where members of the community from different wards were encouraged to share their concerns.
They spoke about a shortage of houses, water and jobs – the latter, they said, causing youth to turn to crime.
Some expressed concern about the fact that many still use the bucket toilet system.
"Our challenge in Ward 2 is water," said Luyanda Matiwane. "There are schools in our ward and water is crucial. Sanitation is always a problem when there is no water. Also, 4 000 people in our area still need houses."
Council Speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaac berated DA ward councillors Lena May (Ward 4) and Marcelle Booysen (Ward 3) in their absence, for missing the public forum.
DA caucus leader Les Reynolds spoke to Grocott's Mail this week about the two DA councillors. "I was very cross with them because they are ward councillors. They should have attended the meeting," Reynolds said.
He said he had urged the two councillors to offer a written apology to the Speaker for their absence.
Kiviet was also unimpressed. "I view this as a sign of disrespect towards the ANC. I will write a report to the Regional Executive Committee about this," Kiviet said.
Mayor Zamuxolo Peter had kicked off proceedings saying that during the two days they had been meeting with the Premier they'd hidden nothing.
"We spoke of the houses, the water… we hope that with their (provincial government's) help we can solve the problems," said the Mayor.
However, Kiviet was just as harsh on the Mayor, ordering him to get to the bottom of the recent housing scam.
Early in August the Mayor confirmed allegations of corruption in the allocation of RDP houses in Extension10, in Mayfield.
"I would like to know, Mr Mayor, how did this happen?" Kiviet demanded. "The changing of the original lists of beneficiaries and replacing them with new names? Because that amounts to stealing a person's house."
The premier believes contractors appointed by the government are to blame for shoddy construction.
"The decaying and inadequate RDP houses are not the government's fault. It is the greedy construction companies who try to save costs by using [inadequate]building products," Kiviet said. "These companies know that by the time the discrepancies appear on the houses they will be long gone and the contract no longer binds them."
Peter said the municipality was not afraid of firing fraudsters.
"People must forward names and proof that people are involved in fraud, especially in the allocation of the RDP houses, or municipal employees who ask for bribes in order to do their jobs," he said.
