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One of the opposing members makes his point.

Pro-Malamulele members disrupt communications meeting

 

Community members who are supporting the proposed new municipality that will include Malamulele, Vuwani, Bungeni and other areas disrupted the Vhembe District’s Communicators Conference on Tuesday morning.

The event took place in the Njhakanjhaka Community Hall and was disrupted by a handful of women, led by a few men, some of them wearing ANC T-shirts. The group, who were speaking Xitsonga, surprised communicators from different departments in Vhembe and journalists when they started challenging the welcome remarks of Makhado Municipality's spokesperson, Mr Louis Bobodi.

One of the people who started the unusual challenge was a middle-aged man, who stood up and urged that “it is wrong for the man to tell us that we are in Makhado Local Municipality, as we are now in Malamulele.” This happened after Bobodi, who was speaking on behalf of Makhado Mayor Cllr David Mutavhatsindi, said he was welcoming everyone in the Makhado Local Municipality.

Matodzi Ralushai, the Vhembe spokesperson, who was also the master of ceremonies, tried to explain that the area will be under the Makhado Local Municipality until 3 August. Ralushai’s remarks were followed by counter-arguments, where the group continued arguing one by one that they were not going to allow the meeting to continue until Bobodi had withdrawn his statement of referring to their municipality as Makhado.

The group, who were expressing their views in Xitsonga while their supporters were whistling and shouting, said they would not allow a situation where “people continue to refer to Malamulele Municipality” as Makhado while the government had already pronounced that there was a new municipality. The group also said they were not prepared to be addressed “by people who are opposing the new municipality.”

They also said they were not happy that the cover page of the Vhembe District Municipality’s official newsletter had “the picture of traditional leaders who are opposing the new municipality. We don’t want these guys. Why did you bring these guys to us?  For you to come here and giving us papers with these guys’ faces, you are undermining us,” said another protestor, followed by shouting and praising from the cheering crowd.

Following deliberations between Ralushai, Mr Wilson Dzebu of the Musina Local Municipality and Mr Moses Shivambu,Vhembe District Municipality’s Media Liaison Officer, tried to address the crowd but with no success. The meeting was later called off.

Ralushai said he was disappointed that the meeting had been cancelled because of disruptions. “We strongly condemn the incident. We still promote social cohesion as it has been in our programme where we were going to encourage the two groups, pro-Makhado and pro-Malamulele, to work together,” said Ralushai.

 

(The original heading of this story - "Pro-Makhado members disrupt ..". - was not correct, as it was actually the pro-Malamulele group who disrupted the Vhembe District’s Communicators Conference. The protestors were unhappy about the fact that people refer to the area they stay in as part of the Makhado Municipality, whereas they believe it must now be regarded as part of Malamulele.

We apologise for the confusion the incorrect heading may have created.)

 

Date:25 June 2016

By: Ndivhuwo Musetha

Read: 1964

 

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