The Chairpersons Association (CA) expressed outrage once more at what they described as the contemptuous way in which Makhado Municipality deals with the public.

The allegation relates to an invitation to attend a municipal demarcation public participation meeting, scheduled for 25 February, which the CA received only on 24 February.

In a strongly worded letter to Minister Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the CA lashes out at the municipality. “We had less than 24 hours to reschedule our programmes in order to attend this meeting. It is very clear from this letter [invite] that the municipal manager is not at all serious about a consultation process, especially where such a very important aspect is to be discussed like the municipal demarcation of this area,” states CA chairman Mr André Naudé in his letter. He added that Minister Gordhan was well aware of the problems being experienced at Malamulele “due to the fact that the town councils and municipalities disregard proper consultation processes and the interest of the public.”

Naudé said he felt obliged to report the matter to the minister, as this type of thing happened repeatedly. “It does not at all assist that we object to this sort of crisis management, which we have done on numerous occasions in the past, where the IDP and all other very important meetings were convened at such short notice and on such a crisis-management basis,” Naudé argued. He said that the municipality must know long in advance about the meetings and the impression being created was that they did everything possible in order not to involve the public in participating in the process.

Naudé urged the minister to give urgent attention to the issue as he needed to report back to his members. “The contempt with which the public is dealt with by the Makhado Municipality is totally unacceptable,” Naudé stated.

A copy of the letter, of which the minister’s office acknowledged receipt, was also sent to the Makhado Municipality. In response, municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi last week tried to explain away the last-minute notice of the meeting by stating that it was not a deliberate undertaking. “The meeting had to take place after the council session. We had to advance the council sitting to 23 February instead of 26 February, and we had been under the impression that the deadline was on 26 February ... That’s why we had to issue the invites on the following day,” Bobodi explained.