Bronkhorstspruit communities demand better services

Friday, March 31, 2017

Bronkhorstspruit - Human Settlement Minister Lindiwe Sisulu visited residents of Bronkhorstspruit to address service delivery concerns on Friday.

The protest prone area is made up of farming and former mining communities of Zithobeni, Rethabiseng, Kanana and Ekangala which border Gauteng and the Mpumalanga province.

Local councillor Don Mabona said the problems facing the area are not new - as such the community is demanding improved service delivery.

Mabona said some of the key issues that are commonly raised in most communities include service delivery in terms of lack of housing, the non-issuing of tittle deeds, incomplete community projects, youth unemployment, lack of business opportunities for SMMEs, lack of support for entrepreneurs, and corruption.

Angry community members said they have no service delivery in the area for more than a decade.

Resident Richard Ndala said some of them have been on the list for housing delivery for more than a decade even though land is available for the building of houses for the poor.

“As residents of Ekangala we have been forgotten. We have no basic services and there is no employment. Even when projects come to build for example – houses - people who are employed there are not from the area. How will the area develop then? When? We demand that the government give us land to occupy immediately with tittle deeds so that we can build our own shacks.”

Minister Sisulu committed to addressing the concerns raised by the community and also urged local councillors to pull up their socks and start delivering services to the public.

“There must be urgency in our response to service delivery concerns from our communities," she said.

She said there have been too many cases where projects had been delayed or stopped, adding that government is trying to eliminate bureaucracy and red tape by being on the ground and getting a first-hand account of the problems faced by communities.

The Minister is expected to visit a community meeting at Skierlek, and Extension 24 in Nellmapius, where title deeds will be handed over to beneficiaries. - SAnews.gov.za