King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality led by Executive Mayor, Cllr Nyaniso Nelani, conducted a Mayoral Imbizo at Bomvu village in Ward 28.
The purpose of the programme that was held on Friday, May 17, 2024 was to reflect on and report on issues of service delivery to the communities and to afford the communities the opportunity to raise their concerns and challenges regarding government services.
In his address, the Executive Mayor highlighted the strides made by the Municipality to turn around KSD. These strides include the review of Municipal policies and By-laws, ensuring that every department has its own policies and bylaws and KSD achieving unqualified audit outcomes for two consecutive years. He added that the Municipality has received recognition for being a secondary city, which will assist the Municipality to receive more grants for service delivery.
He further revealed plans to develop Qunu as one of KSD developmental nodes and Viedgesville as a logistic hub, with the aim of boosting our economy and creating jobs.
Sector departments formed part of the event, such as the Department of Health, Social Development, Home Affairs, DEDEAT, DEDEA, DSRAC, Department of Correctional Services, SAPS, SANRAL and IEC. The departments shared their services and programmes to meet the needs of the citizens.
SANRAL shared that the road from Viedgesville to Coffee Bay is in design stage, however, they are currently conducting a routine road maintenance such as pothole patching, grass cutting and cleaning. In addition to that, there are plans for the expansion of Viedgesville to Mthatha and the road from Mthatha Airport to town to be two lanes. Residents were advised by SANRAL not to build near the road.
Along with community development programs aimed at upskilling youth, the organization offers scholarships to high school and university students studying science and maths.
As the nation prepares for national and provincial elections, IEC also informed the residents about the voting procedures, emphasizing that there are three ballot papers for these elections represented by colours: Blue is for the National Compensatory Ballot, Orange is for National Region Ballot and lastly, Pink is for the Provincial Legislature Ballot
Furthermore, a total of 105 houses, according to Human Settlements, will be constructed in Ward 28, as well as 65 housing units under Matheko that were previously stalled. In addition, disaster-affected people will be provided with temporary structures. The department shared that moving forward, RDP houses will now be provided with a 5000-liter water tank and safety burglars, in particular for elderly persons, and lastly, destitute people should register their names with the municipality.
DEDEAT shared that the department has a Consumers Protection Office to assist people with their complaints, adding that people should keep their receipts and invoices to enable the office to deal with the complaint against that particular business.
For job creation, DEDEA revealed that communities can make a request to have an EPWP project, such as the removal of alien plants.
KSD Municipality informed the community that in the next financial year (2024-2025), the Municipality has plans to maintain the Bhekanathi to Mqanduli road, which is 18 km. The Nkalane to Bhuwa road is being maintained by the Department of Transport. Moreover, KSD, working with Eskom, will soon start the electrification of Ward 28 extensions and then the capacitation of the power substation as a phase two project.
