A R16 million project that was supposed to ease unemployment in the villages around the Vuwani Ward 3 area is now the centre of a protracted dispute and is creating a lot of animosity in the area.

At the centre of the dispute is the project steering committee that is supposed to run the project.

Residents claim the committee, which is believed to be a local branch of the ANC, is said to have imposed itself on the people. The situation is so serious that the community has threatened to disrupt the construction of the fire station, which is a pro-ject by the Vhembe District municipality.

Mirror has reliably learnt that the impasse has led to the project’s stalling, with no activ-ity-taking place at the site.

In a letter dated No-vember 3, addressed to the executive mayor of Vhembe, Mr Falaza Mdaka, the Vhembe municipal manager, the Chief Whips of Vhembe and Makhado, the mayor of Makhado and the chairperson of the local Vuwani ANC branch, it was pointed out that the committee is illegitimate, as it had not been democrati-cally elected.

Mr Arnold Mudau, Ward 3 Civic Forum chairperson who represents the villages of Muhuvhini Mission, Kurhuleni, Vyeboom, Nngwekhulu and Tshivhulana, said the project steering com-mittee should comprise members of the civic community and ward representatives who will work together with the ward councillor.

He said they requested that the activities of the self-proclaimed committee should be suspended to give way for the formation of the correct steering committee, which would follow the right procedures.

Mudau said the communities believed that the self-imposed steering committee had bad intentions that would not benefit the community. “They want to ensure that each and every cent goes to them and their friends instead of benefitting the whole community. We cannot just sit down and look on while our community is being denied development. We have had several projects which were not completed because of the same people and we are not going to allow them this time,” he said.

Mudau said he was also worried that the skills that people acquired from the Expanded Public Works Programme would go down the drain, as people were not given the chance to experiment and practice the skills at such projects.

He said they would continue engaging the municipalities until their problem was re-solved.

Ward 3 councillor Ms Ngwana refused to comment and slammed down the phone.

Mr Moss Shivambu, the spokesperson of the Vhembe District municipality, confirmed that they had received a complaint from the community but was quick to say the problem was receiving maximum attention and that they were busy resolving it and the project would be running soon.