“We will not tolerate shoddy work done by contractors. This time around, we need to appoint contractors who will do quality work and finish their jobs on time,” said Cllr Josephine Mukwevho, the mayor of Mutale Local Municipality.

“We are in the process of appointing contractors as, in the coming financial year, we want to rebuild roads and bridges damaged by heavy rains that fell in January this year. We have set aside R24 700 000 to reconstruct roads and bridges damaged by floods,” Mukwevho said.

She was speaking on Thursda, when tabling a budget of more than R92 million during an event at the Tshilamba hall. She further said that more than 620 new RDP houses would be built this financial year and 420 of the 620 housing units would be built in Ward 1, which had been neglected for many years.

“We want to create jobs for jobless people, embark upon sustainable rural development and bring the poor and disadvantaged to the centre of development. We will be employing 660 poor, unemployed people in our communities through the EPWP programme, she added.

She said she was excited that the municipality had completed the electrification of about 150 villages and now they were concentrating on the electrification of extensions like planning to electrify 825 units in the Mafukani extension, Muswodi-Tshisimani and Khakhu-Makuleni, among others.

One of the senior traditional leaders, Thovhele Ntsweteni Makuya, representing the house of traditional leaders in Mutale, welcomed the budget and said it would help to guide the municipality in delivering better services to the communities. “We as traditional leaders are ready to work with councillors and the municipality to develop our communities for the better,” said Thovhele Makuya.