Ward 21 of the Makhado Municipality at last elected a Ward Committee on 20 March.

The ward, comprising Tshikota and Louis Trichardt west of the N1, attempted in vain to elect a committee in October last year. The meeting in October was disrupted when the representatives from Tshikota had to be elected.

Ward 21 was taken from the ANC in the past election and is a Democratic Alliance ward run by Cllr Brian du Plooy.

The following people were elected on the Ward 21 Committee: Aretha Smit, N E Rasilavhi, Martha Babadu (Louis Trichardt), Phillemon Maphari (Waterpoort), SS Mathidi (Padkamp), Azwi Ramalamula (Kavhambe) and a representative from Songozwi (traditional leader).

“During last Tuesday’s meeting, there was once again a disruption of the meeting when the three representatives from Tshikota had to be elected. The meeting was disrupted by a certain group of people who did exactly the same at the October meeting,” Du Plooy said on 27 March.

Du Plooy said that the meeting was well attended by residents of Tshikota, but not as well attended by residents of Louis Trichardt.

The chairperson of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association, Ms Inga Gilfillan, expressed her disappointment that not enough of the association’s members turned up for the election.

“This is not good. We missed our second representative by a couple of votes,” Gilfillan said. The SRPA manager, Ms Smit, was elected on the Ward Committee.

“In theory, a ward committee is the right thing. But in practice, the residents get tired and overworked since they have to spend too many hours of their time on issues that are the responsibility of municipal officials and full-time councillors. It is not fair that residents have to be confronted minute by minute with a lack of water or dirty water, poorly maintained roads, lack of electricity, sewerage spills, destruction in the graveyard, poor administration, tender corruption and poor management of projects. If officials are not able to fulfil their functions, let them step down and be replaced by skilled people who can get the job done,” Gilfillan said.

In a meeting with Wards 20 and 21 on 15 March, the mayor, Cllr Mavhungu Lerule, stressed the importance of the ward committees that work closely with the ward councillors to represent the interests of the ward. The ward councillor should bring issues to the office of the Speaker to capture it in the IDP where applicable.

Du Plooy will announce at a later stage how the representation of Tshikota will be implemented.