MUSINA – A sit-in at the Nancefield municipal offices was averted on Monday this week, when police officials mediated between protesters and municipal representatives.

Members of the Greater Musina Unemployment Forum threatened with a sit-in in protest against what they termed the municipal council’s failure to respond to an urgent memorandum handed in at the mayor’s office a fortnight ago. The municipality indicated in a written response that the memorandum will be tabled during the next Council meeting towards the end of October. The forum rejected this.

Supporters of the forum took to the streets two weeks ago to protest about various grievances against the local authority. They marched on the office of the mayor in Nancefield, where they handed in a memorandum.

Accusations of corruption, nepotism and a total lack of transparency in the allocation of tenders are contained in the memorandum. The prevailing high rate of unemployment tops the list of grievances.

According to protesters, corruption is rife in the allocation of RDP houses in Nancefield and also in the allocation of municipal tenders.

The protesters insisted that the mayor must be available full time in his capacity as head of the municipality. He should not have any additional occupation. The present mayor, Cllr David Phologa, is a teacher. On some posters it is alleged that the mayor does not give attention to correspondence and meetings of the community, and that the unacceptably high rate of unemployment and crime in the town is not properly addressed.

One of the protesters, Mr Michael Mulaleni, said high-level corruption in the allocation of RDP houses is depriving local residents of the opportunity to own a house, while these houses are being sold to foreigners. He said not only the municipality but also central government departments and the police are involved in the employment of illegal immigrants, thus depriving local residents of job opportunities.

The chairperson of the Greater Musina Unemployment Forum, Mr Charles Makushu, who organised the protest march, said that they made an appointment with the mayor to hand over their memorandum. He said the mayor did not honour this appointment. In his absence, the memorandum was handed to the mayor’s secretary.

Mr Makushu said his forum initially gave the mayor three days to respond to their complaints. On Monday, a deadline of 48 hours was given.

In a telephonic interview, Mayor Cllr Phologa said that communication between the forum and his council is jeopardized by the ambiguity of the memorandum and by the actions of members of the forum, which seem to indicate that they are not so much concerned about real grievances, but that they have hidden political agendas.

“I have no problem to meet with groups of genuinely concerned people to discuss their problems. But when I am confronted with political attacks, threats and intimidation, then the response must be expected to come from a political or other level. It is not clear whether the memorandum is addressed to me as mayor or to the municipal council. If the council must respond, it can only do so after it has had the opportunity to consider the memorandum. The memorandum also contains requests which do not really make sense.” He referred to a request in the memorandum that council should reopen the copper mine in Musina, in order to create job opportunities.

As far as the level of unemployment in Musina is concerned, the mayor said it is unfortunately true that unemployment in Musina, as elsewhere in the country, remains a very serious problem. The Musina Municipality has already embarked on various projects to improve the situation. It also intends having an Economic Summit later this year, to create the opportunity for people and organisations to come up with innovative ideas to improve the position.

Concerning existing municipal projects, he said the spirulina project might create some 40 new job opportunities. The municipality also embarked on an expanded public works programme to construct roads in Nancefield. In all, 86 people are employed in this programme. He said 1 500 people applied for these jobs. In order to make the selection process as transparent as possible, a “lucky draw” was organized in which the names of applicants were randomly drawn from a container in public.

As for the allocation of tenders, mayor Phologa said the procedure is strictly prescribed by the appropriate act. The municipality cannot deviate from that.

On the allegations of RDP houses and jobs being allocated to illegal immigrants, Cllr Phologa said allocations can only be made to individuals with a South African identity document. He repeated his invitation to anybody who has proof of these allegations to come forward so that the evidence can be tested in open court. He said if it can be proven that some of the people with South African IDs who received houses were in fact Zimbabweans, those houses would obviously be returned and the municipality would then take the matter further with those who had acted illegally.

As for his position as mayor, he said he officiates in a temporary capacity as mayor. It is not a full-time position. There is nothing unlawful in his holding down an additional full-time job.