MAJOSI – The Executive committee of the Makhado Municipality met with the Community of Majosi and surrounding villages at Majosi Primary School on August 20 to discuss matters around service delivery.

At the meeting, community members stressed that the service delivery meeting should not turn into a canvassing campaign. This came after some of the exco members failed to distinguish between an administrative and a political campaign while addressing the masses. At the meeting, that was composed mainly of Ward 14 citizens under Cllr Elizabeth Ngobeni, community members tabled water, electricity, unfinished housing projects, the grading of streets and resources for people with disabilities as their grievances.

Mr Phineas Mudau from Vhangani at Ha-Masia village, said that the Vhangani Community has been surviving without water for a period of five years. "We've got taps in our streets, but there is no water; we don't know what the problem is," he said. He further said that in some areas, boreholes have been drilled, but no connections have been made for the people to get water. Last year, towards the end of the year, a young girl from Ha-Vhangani village was struck and killed by a vehicle when she crossed the Majosi road while pushing a wheel barrow. She was going to fetch water at Ha-Majosi, about five kilometres from her village. Some of the youth from Ha-Vhangani told Mirror that they travel five kilometres to Majosi to fetch water after school, twice every day.

Some councillors, who always fail to address the problems at council meetings in their wards and simply recommend that grievances be put in writing and submitted to the Municipality, came under severe criticism.

However, according to the PRO of the Makhado Municipality, Mr Peter Muleya, the communities would benefit form the outreach in the next financial year. "All these meetings are being held around all the Municipal wards, so as to ensure that we consult with the communities," he said. Several other meetings have been held: These meetings were with the Buysdorp community on June14, with Sinthumulue/Kutama on 14 July, with Ravele on 24 July, and with Ramavhoya on 18 July.

On August 5, a meeting was held with the Muumoni community. In all these meetings, community members were able to give input pertaining to services, such as electricity, water, roads and other related matters. According to Mr Muleya such matters were referred to the relevant Directorates for processing, with feedback and reports being provided to the communities through the ward councillors. Regarding water, community members were not told that water is being transferred to the Vhembe District.