Mahikeng – Communications Minister Faith Muthambi says communities must take advantage of the opportunity to interact with government leaders as National Imbizo Focus Week gets underway.
The Minister on Tuesday spent one-on-one time with residents of Ngaka Modiri District Municipality at Bradford Park taxi rank in the North West ahead of the launch of National Imbizo Focus Week.
During the week, a series of izimbizo will be held across the country to give government leaders time to interact directly with members of the public.
Commuters, hawkers and taxi operators alike raised their concerns with the Minister. Some taxi operators raised concerns about being neglected by the provincial government, while some commuters were concerned about the state of the taxi rank. Others were concerned about crime and getting robbed at the taxi rank.
During her interaction with the commuters and taxi operators, Minister Muthambi acknowledged that the taxi rank needed to be cleaned and that water leakages had to be attended to.
She encouraged communities to hold their political representatives to account.
“Political representatives must reach out to communities and listen to their concerns. “We have a responsibility to build this nation,” she said.
Taxi operator Bruce Maabale told SAnews that he appreciates the Minister’s visit at the taxi rank, saying he hopes that government will address their concerns.
“We hope that government will listen to us. The minister is here to listen to our concerns,” he said.
Maabale said government must pay more attention to the issue of subsidies and illegal taxi operators.
Nthabeleng Mosela, a taxi commuter, said she would like to see government taking care of the taxi rank and ensuring the safety of commuters.
“Our taxi rank is always dirty. Government must employ people who will ensure that the taxi rank is always clean,” she said.
Minister Muthambi was accompanied by North West MECs and the Mayor of Mahikeng.
In ensuring better service delivery, government launched the Back-to-Basics approach to ensure that basic services such as water supply, refuse collection, pothole eradication and electricity provision happens at every municipality.
The izimbizo promotes public participation in government programmes to improve and uplift the lives of communities.
Through these interactions, communities will get a better understanding for the programmes mentioned in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) and the National Development Plan (NDP). – SAnews.gov.za
