The utter dissatisfaction of diverse communities with the Makhado Municipality boiled over during a rainbow protest march on Friday, August 28. The participants want the municipality to be placed under administration.

Placards of protest were carried by young and old, conservative and liberal, black and white and all colours in between. What united them was the value that they all place on good service delivery and competent and honest governance.

“U work for us”, “Bad service stops here”, “Stop playing and start working” and “Corruption our prime irritation” were some of the messages carried by the 400 plus protestors.

The memorandum of grievances that was carried explained the dispute that the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA) had declared with the Makhado Municipality more than a year ago.

The memo mentions the failure of the municipality to comply with their legal responsibilities regarding issues such as water for human consumption, sewerage, roads, consultation, financial management and administrative management. The property rates implementation was mentioned specifically.

“This action is a clear vote of no confidence by the public in the competency and quality of the administration of the Makhado Municipality,” reads the memo.

The request of the memo is for the intervention of the MEC’s office to place the municipality under administration. The administrator is then requested to suspend the financial manager for gross negligence and to budget properly and address the serious backlog in service delivery.

“Review all personnel in terms of their qualifications and get rid of appointments done on the basis of nepotism. Involve the community in the evaluation process when new appointments are being made,” reads the memo. The property rates process is to be suspended and restarted afresh with proper consultation, fair and proper valuations and the necessary economic impact study.

The memo was addressed to the MEC of Local Government and Housing, Mr Soviet Lekganyane. The previous day, a meeting was held between the dissatisfied structures, the representatives of the MEC and the mayor and other officials of the Makhado Municipality. The SRPA invited the MEC in a letter dated August 18 to receive the memorandum.

No one from the MEC’s office was present to receive the memorandum. Protestors began to chant that they demanded the presence of the mayor, Cllr Mavhungu Luruli. A senior manager, Mr Lampies Schoeman, was instructed to go out of the building and receive the memorandum.

“We think that the mayor or the Speaker, at least, should have accepted the memo. But they were nowhere to be found,” said Mr Solly Maano of the Down Town Citizen Forum directly after the march.

The reason for the absence of an MEC representative was that they had the impression that everything had been sorted out.

“We received the report that all issues that would be raised at the march had been dealt with at Thursday’s meeting, which indicated that the march was not on,” said the MEC’s media liaison officer, Mr Papiki Tjebana, on Tuesday.

The same reason was given to Mr Frans Prinsloo, chairman of the SRPA, when he in-quired from the MEC’s office.

“That is absolutely not true. Nothing was sorted out at the meeting, and I stated at the meeting that the march would go through. We have invited the MEC and have confirmed. If his representative, Mr Mashile, has rendered a gross misrepresentation of the truth, then the MEC must sort him out,” Mr Prinsloo said.

At the demonstration the protestors heard that the MEC would report back on September 15 with a proper plan of action.

“If it does not happen on 15 September, dan gaan die poppe dans (there will be trouble),” said Mr Maano in his address to the demon-strators.

The organisers said that they were very satisfied with the way that the communities came together for the mass action. The action was supported by various structures, including the SRPA, Down Town Citizen’s Forum, the Chairpersons Association, Chamber of Commerce, Agricultural Unions, structures of village communities and others.