The Bushbuckridge traffic station and a local municipality’s economic development offices that used to house the Bohlabela district municipality in the Thulamahashe Township have two things in common; they both have no telephone and fax lines.
This came to light during an investigations into allegations that the Bushbuckridge municipality’s offices in Thulamahashe were failing to give the expected service delivery to the people,
Officials working in these offices said it was not their fault that they were unable to provide services as expected because “we have never seen an office that can operate effectively without a telephone or a fax”.
“Surprisingly, this multimillion rand building used to house the entire Bohlabela District Municipality that had a District Mayor, Caswel Maluleke. Things started going wrong when the district municipality was absorbed into Ehlanzeni District Municipality because everything including furniture as well as phones were removed,” said a senior official working in the Thulamahashe section of the Bushbuckridge municipality.
The Bushbuckridge municipality spokesman, Matome Malatji confirmed that the offices, together with the Bushbuckridge traffic station that is falling under Bushbuckridge municipality operated without telephones or faxes.
Malatji also confirmed that the Bushbuckridge traffic station had operated for almost a year without telephones or faxes.
“The challenge we have started when a service provider that we had appointed in 2006 failed to effectively do the work his company had been appointed to do. We were forced to remove the company but before we could appoint another company the service provider took us to the high court for terminating his contract,” explained Malatji.
He confirmed that the saga between the municipality and the service provider, Jozi Patronics, started back in 2006 when the Bushbuckridge municipality was still stationed in Mkhuhlu and during the reign of the then Executive Mayor, Milton Morema.
“As things are, we feel we cannot tolerate to await a court outcome between the municipality and the service provider. Bushbuckridge municipality and the province must just do something about this situation because it is directly affecting us as the business community,” said Tiyani Makhubela, a local businessman.
Makhubela said he hoped the new executive mayor, Renius Khumalo, would be in a position to show for a fact that “a new broom sweeps cleaner” by rectifying the situation as soon as possible.
The manager for the Bushbuckridge traffic station, Norman Mokoena, refused to comment about the lack of telephones.
Jozi Patronics could not be reached for comment but the matter between the Bushbuckridge municipality and this company was referred back to the Bushbuckridge magistrate court for a hearing because Jozi Patronics had not exhausted all local avenues before going to the high court.
Former president Thabo Mbeki declared the Bushbuckridge area as a Presidential Nodal area, an area that needed special attention from the Presidency, as it consists of extremely poverty stricken communities. ENDS
September 21, 2011
Current Affairs