Crime identified as huge problem

To offer residents an opportunity to raise their grievances about service delivery, the Makhado Local Municipality hosted a mayoral imbizo at the Christian Worship Centre Fire House in Madabani last Friday.

Cllr Tebogo Mamorobela, the acting mayor, said that the imbizo aimed to strengthen the municipality's public contact with residents.

Ms Ndifelani Mukwevho from Tshilwavhusiku Crime Prevention urged the communities to help them combat crime. "We want the deteriorating steel bus stops to be removed because criminals hide behind them, so that they can attack vulnerable people," she said.

She added that they wanted to make the festive season safe. "We also encourage you to report cases of missing people immediately and don't leave the children's with strangers. We want you to go to schools in order to help us reduce crime," she said.

Sanco Makhado sub-region secretary Mr Bernard Matumba said that the roads were full of potholes and their cars were being damaged. "Fix the road from Madombidzha to Louis Trichardt as soon as possible, because it is damaging our cars and the potholes may cause accidents," he said.

He said that the residents did not have water and the municipality must supply water with trucks. He further said that nepotism must end when the municipality was hiring employees. "We don't want nepotism when you allocate the RDP houses and we want electricity," he added. "The expanded public works programme workers should be monitored because some of them sleep the whole day without working."

Mr Philemon Matidza from the Muthundinnyi Project said that the municipality must care about the people living with disabilities. "We want the municipality to increase our annual budget," he said.

Mamorobela urged the residents to refrain from damaging government infrastructure. "Let's work together to make our communities better," she said.