MAKHADO – The speaker of the Makhado Municipality, Cllr Joan Hoorzuk, said that she was not abusing her power, as accused by Cllr Marie Helm of the Democratic Alliance.

“I am seriously disturbed by the article that appeared in the Mirror of January 28, where Helm sees me as a destructive individual. On her own, she is the one who is more destructive, by printing people’s names of events such as this one. It is an opportunity for herself to draw attention,” said Hoorzuk.

She said she wanted Helm to explain her statement that she (Hoorzuk) is involved with the contractor (Mackenzie) as, according to her, the statement has a different signal. “In her statement, she said she wondered what I would gain from the project; so who is to gain, because everyone would have water after the completion of the project. As a ward councillor, she was never seen in the communities and the community are asking her why she was never there when they were complaining about not getting water,” she added.

“With regard to misuse of power allegations, I don’t know anything about this. The community of Buysdorp voted for their own steering committee. I saw the contractor with other community members on January 19 for the first time. Helm must understand that this is not the DA project, but a project for the community who suffered without water since 1995 and she was not there when those races were suffering. We expect her to go down to the community and perform her duties as a ward councillor,” she said.

Hoorzuk added that on the issue of the HIV/Aids Clinic at Eltivillas, Cllr Helm did not get her facts right. “When is time for smearing campaign, Mrs Helm’s name keeps coming up, but we have never seen her going around doing constructive work for her community,” she concluded.

She added that she had already started taking legal steps against Cllr Helm for alleging that she abuses her power.