By ‘Odidi Matai-Sigudla
Ward councillors and ward committee members gathered at Noluthando Hall in Joza on 9 June, to get an update on the water and roads situation in Makhanda. The meeting was called by Makana Municipality Speaker, ANC Councillor Mthuthuzeli Mabhuti Matyumza, who was not happy that some ward committee members and councillors were absent and had not excused themselves. “Ward Councillors, Ward Committees are foot soldiers of the community. When there’s going to be anything within the community, they are the first call to at least inform us that there’s this cry within our area,” said Matyumza.
He added that ward committees must be active. “I am simply saying, if ward councillors are not strengthening the notion of ward committee members to at least respect the duty and the call that they accepted, we are going to take them out,” Matyumza clearly warned.
Matyumza promised to support councillors and ward committees. “As long as you keep to the call of representing your community, we are going to be together in driving this thing with you. We can not leave you at the back, we must walk with you, and it is that reason we are here today,” stated Matyumza.
Executive Mayor Yandiswa Vara said she was happy that the taxi industry was present at the meeting as they had been complaining a lot about the conditions of the roads. However, she said it was disappointing to hear ward committee members also complaining about the roads, as if they were not regularly updated by the municipality.
She further explained that the municipality is working with the National Arts Festival’s (NAF) Social Employment Fund project that fixes potholes. The municipality provides the material that NAF uses because NAF tends to run out of materials. She asked that committee and community members stop saying that all road repairs are the work of NAF when they are not.
A ward committee member said this misunderstanding might be because of a lack of official communication from the municipality’s side. “People will believe what they see, not what they don’t see. So if they walk around that project site and you don’t see any uniform that has the badge for the municipality, they only see the workers of that project, then people will automatically assume (it’s not the municipality),” he said.
Director of Engineering and Infrastructural Services, Asanda Gidana, said the municipality won’t be able to fix all the roads for now and would prioritise potholes in the National Arts Festival hotspots. “When we talk about the festival, we’re not talking about the town only; this includes the township spots for the festival as well,” said Gidana.
At that point, Vara said she wanted to clear up the assumption that the municipality was only repairing potholes because of the National Arts Festival, which starts next week. “I wish people would understand that we are not patching or maintaining our roads because of the Arts Festival. It’s an ongoing project. We need to dismiss that. Even if there was not going to be a National Arts Festival, we were going to fix those roads because they have been part of a plan. We have a plan that has been drafted in January,” stated Vara.
Meanwhile, many complaints arose from committee members about the water trucks and road graders not going to specific areas the municipality had sent them to, or doing a poor job. Gidana answered by stating, “When you see something that isn’t right, don’t wait for these meetings. Because we work with evidence. When you see it, take a picture. We will know who is driving that truck.”
Vara said water problems would be a thing of the past by 30 June. “The reason people keep raising these issues it’s because out of these meetings… there’s no results. But judge us on the timelines that we are giving you,” added Matyumza. “The work is being done on the 30th, and the water will be functional on the 1st. So on the 30th, there’s no water. Judge on the 1st,” he said.
