Following years of pleas by the Davhana traditional authority for better offices, the Limpopo government finally granted them their wish. On Tuesday, 28 June, a government delegation, led by Public Works MEC Mr Dickson Masemola, visited the village to hand over a multimillion-rand office project to the contractor.
The new office buildings will be constructed at a cost of R10,2 million and will take approximately 12 months to complete.
The handover of the site to the contractor was attended by traditional leaders from villages within Davhana, Cllr Humbulani Mathavha, who represented the mayor of Collins Chabane, Cllr Grace Mashabane, who represented the mayor of Vhembe, community structures and the MEC's entourage.
Speaking at the ceremony, Masemola said that the government was carrying out the promises made by Premier Stan Mathabatha during his state-of-the-province address. "The premier articulated several massive projects and this one of taking care of our traditional leaders is one of them. CoGHSTA MEC Basikopo Makamu and I have to see that those projects are undertaken. The demand is huge, and we started a few years ago. We have, for this financial year, been to different traditional leaders where we rolled out massive infrastructures to around 10 traditional leaders. The Davhana traditional authority is one such project."
Masemola said that the new office building complex to be built at Davhana would make life much easier for the Thovhele and his staff. "There will be, among others, a fully furnished kitchen, a borehole for constant water supply, and the landscape will be something out of this world. This will be a centre for community development with multidisciplinary activities that will modernise the village," he said.
Masemola added that he had seen the state of the roads for himself and said he would motivate that they be given preference during their meetings.
Thovhele Leonard Ravele Davhana thanked the provincial government for having honoured its promise to build them a new office building. "We have waited for far too long, but it looks like God finally answered our prayers. Our old office is no longer safe for use as you can see the ceiling is caving in, and now things will change for the better. We are also grateful that jobs will be created for our subjects, and we can assure you here that the hiring will be done in a very transparent manner," he said.