The former Limpopo Premier says Cope has become the hope of the people. Moloto, the Limpopo provincial chairperson of Cope, was speaking in Thohoyandou on Wednesday during the handing over of two memorandums, one to the Department of Transport and the other to the Thulamela Municipality.
The memorandum for Thulamela deals with service delivery issues, while one sent to the Department of Transport deals with allegations that top government officials unscrupulously used the learnership programme meant for children of poor people for their own children. Moloto criticized the corruption in Vhembe and said that this reflected the decadence so characteristic of the ANC government. “We call upon the police to charge those who have fraudulently misused learnership programmes for their own benefit,” said Moloto.
He also said those 140 learners should be withdrawn forthwith, failing which they will feel the might of the people.
The memorandum to the Department of Transport relates to a list recently sent to different media houses by Cope and showing names of people who benefited from the learnership programme aimed at the poor, but actually benefitting important people in Vhembe.
The service delivery memorandum sent to the municipality outlined a number of projects which have been outstanding for a long time and called on the municipality to complete them.
The following are some of the demands in the memorandum:
That the construction of the Siloam – Tshitutuni to Khakhu road be speeded up; that the Fondwe-Khalavha Bridge needs to be reconstructed; that the Tshisaulu-Duthuni to Phiphidi road be rehabilitated; that the road from Malamulele to Ntlhaveni be tarred, as well as the one from Malamulele to Giant Reefs, and that the Thohoyandou stadium be renovated and maintained.
Other demands include the improving of the billing system to avoid overcharging communities for water.
Ms Tshilidzi Ravhuanzwo, Limpopo Cope MP, said they had learnt with disgust about the devastating state of corruption and nepotism in transport in the Vhembe district. She said it felt sad that the poorest of the poor the programme was designed for did not benefit, while children who could afford the best education are the ones to benefit.
Ravhuanzwo said it is equally humiliating for officers of the municipality to be so greedy that they wanted to lay their hands on everything that government was doing to improve the lives of the majority of the lot of the poor. “We are sick and tired of officials who feel that they wield such power that nothing would be done as they have connections in higher offices of the ruling party. We will do all we can in order to see that justice is done, that the right people are benefitting and the suspension of the officers involved,” said Ravhuanzwo.
The Basic Traffic Training Programme was initiated two years ago by the provincial government as a way of addressing poverty, mostly in child-headed families.
The programme has come under fierce attack before after officials benefited their children and relatives, instead of the intended poor. At that time, the department promised to close all loopholes to stop the recurrence of the incident but it remains to be seen what steps will be taken against the officials involved and what the future holds for those who improperly benefited from the programme.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport, Wisani Ngobeni said the department would investigate the allegations. The Chief Whip at Thulamela, Mutshutshu Mammba, said most of the grievances fell outside their area of competence. “We will give a response to those which involve us within seven working days,” he said. Those that fell outside their scope will be handed over to the relevant departments.