“The Mopani district will not relocate to Tzaneen,” says the spokesperson for the Mopani District Municipality, Tomelo Malaka.

Rumours that the district municipality will be moving came as a shock to many residents when they hit the streets for the first time last year. They also attracted the attention of headmen in the villages surrounding Giyani. The headmen, together with the Giyani residents’ property representative task team, called a meeting with the district executive mayor, Humphrey Mokgobi, to discuss the matter. At the meeting, the executive mayor allegedly denied that the district was relocating.

However, the rumours erupted again when a truck came to load office equipment at the Giyani offices to be taken to Tzaneen. Some of the offices were left empty afterwards. Many people expressed fears that the moving of offices of the district municipality might hamper development in Giyani. Some of the workers who spoke to Mirror said it would greatly inconvenience them, since they would have to rent flats there or drive long distances to work every day.

The district spokesperson, Tomelo Malaka, refuted the allegations and said it was only the workers who were working in the disaster management department who were moving. These workers will also be compensated for the additional travel costs.

According to him, this is because the district has built a new disaster management centre in Tzaneen that “will be able to coordinate all the five municipalities in the district with ease.”

When asked why the centre had to be built in Tzaneen instead of Giyani, where the district is based, Tomelo cited Tzaneen as a central place for the disaster management team to be able to execute their job effectively. “If you look at the distances, you’ll find that it is less than hundred kilometres to Phalaborwa, Maruleng or Giyani,” explained Tomelo.

Apart from that, the centre is said to have been equipped with modern technology such as software that will be able to direct callers to the nearest emergency centre should they call for assistance, thereby improving service to the people by cutting the response time.