The mayor of Thulamela municipality, the eleventh largest municipality in the country, Chief Thivhulawi Makumbane, has dispelled rumours that residential sites occupied by people at Thohoyandou Block P East and Block P West have been sold to investors for a massive development.

Makumbane said the rumours are malicious and meant to sow seeds of discontent and division in the community. He was responding to rumours that are spreading in the area, during a community meeting at the Thohoyandou Town Hall over the weekend. The meeting came amidst threats by the community that they were to march against the forced removal to Tswinga village.

At the meeting, community leaders complained that most of the information about activities taking place in their area were not reaching them, which the municipality said could be as a result of people´s not attending meetings. Community leaders pledged their full support to all the developments that will take place in their area, as that would benefit their people in terms of employment and the infrastructure.

They regretted the rumour and said they had been misled by people who might be having some hidden agendas. The municipality also promised to relay all communiqués to all residents on the ground through the recognized community structures to avoid a recurrence of the incident.

Makumbane said the municipality had learnt with surprise about the rumuor as they had not resolved to buy residents out of their properties and had no intention of doing so. “The municipality follows the laws of this country and we still uphold the view that residents have the right to own property and that they will not be forced to sell their properties. Forced removals are a thing of the past and the word does not apply in a democratic society,“ he said.

Makumbane said he was shocked to hear that residents were planning a march against the municipality, even before having a meeting with the municipality. “Our municipality still maintains its open door policy, where organized community structures can always relay their grievances, which will be attended to quickly."

Officials from the municipality seized the opportunity to brief the community on the latest about the close to a billion-rand Gateway project which was supposed to have started, but is being delayed because of the continued rain. They were briefed on temporary measures that were agreed on, as some developments like bus and taxi ranks will mean that the existing ones will be shut and moved elsewhere for the duration of the construction, which is expected to take a year.

The main bus rank at Mvusuludzo will be housed at the sports field adjacent to the SASSA offices at P East and the municipality has made available the Thohoyandou Stadium for the use by the community during construction. “We have many developments in the pipeline that will make our towns, Sibasa ,Malamulele and Thohoyandou, some of the best in the country and we can assure our communities that they stand to benefit," said Makonde Mathivha, the municipal manager.

Mathivha said the relocation of the ground to Thohoyandou stadium would just be a temporary measure and when people came back to their ground, they will find a brand new entertainment centre which will boast a park and braai stands amongst the improvements. “This goes to show how committed we are as a municipality to change the lives of our residents for the better. We will, in partnership with our people, be able to achieve more even in the rural areas; we are serious about development in our area," he said.