Mothutlung deaths unnecessary: Cogta Minister

Friday, January 24, 2014

Pretoria – No one has to die during service delivery protests, says Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Lechesa Tsenoli, condemning the deaths of four people, during a recent protest in Mothutlung township, in the North West.

Speaking for the first time since the Mothutlung incident, Tsenoli described the deaths as "completely unnecessary," adding that measures needed to be put in place to prevent similar incidents.

“We regret the death of people. This is completely unnecessary certainly during protests,” Tsenoli told the South African Government news agency SAnews. His comments follow two weeks of violent protests by Mothutlung residents who were complaining about the disruption of water services in the area.

On Friday, North West Premier Thandi Modise appealed to communities in the province to be patient while authorities were preparing to implement the over R2 billion Provincial Water Projects Implementation Plan to be rolled out across the North West in the short to medium term.

The plan with delivery time-frames is part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed last weekend by Modise and Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.

Following the Mothutlung unrest, three top officials in the Madibeng municipality were sacked.

Tsenoli dismissed the view that it was the killings that prompted the move to fire the three officials.

“Of course it was important that we remove the three, and the message that I’m communicating is that the action is consequential to the interventions and actions we have been taking in the North West and that municipality.”

Tsenoli said his department would continue to probe problems that are believed to be plaguing the Madibeng municipality that provides services to Mothutlung.

“The tragedy and drama of these protests can make us  ignore due process. We still have to appreciate the necessity of following due process so that we entrench that as a way of handling things of this nature.

“We also insist that accountability must be enforced strongly. We want to deepen and entrench accountability in that municipality to prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening.  We insist that accountability must be exercised strongly by the council itself.”

Tsenoli said his department’s involvement in the North West has been ongoing. 

“The interventions and the subsequent action you have seen being taken against some officials is as a result of our involvement in the affairs of the council. We are also making interventions in other municipalities where there are problems.” – SAnews.gov.za