King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality conducted a Mayoral Imbizo on Friday, 10 September 2021 held at Chief Ntabozuko Njemla’s Great Place in ward 14 within KSDM jurisdiction. The purpose of the outreach was to engage communities with government programs that seeks to advance service delivery within the area and KSDM in general. The public participation is informed by Chapter 4 of the Municipality Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000 as amended.
This is also informed by the directive of the Constitution of the Republic. The proposed program has also ensured that there is representation of the relevant government departments. The program was coordinated by the Executive Mayor, Cllr Nelani and he presented all the municipal programs and relevant government programs that can benefit the community of ward 14.
Amongst the projects and programs mentioned, the need to speed up the development of the Special Economic Zone, upgrade the proposed N2 and R 61, resolve the pending land claims and for the finalisation of the Vulindlela Industrial Park to encourage the manufacturing sector which contributes less than 4 % to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Furthermore, the Executive Mayor outlined an importance of ensuring that there is a need to unlock the property developments to create opportunities for property ownership for the middle class and to enhance municipal revenue. There were challenges that were highlighted by communities, some of these challenges were the escalation of crime within the area, there is slow progress on house provision for the victims of the disaster, shortage of water supply, facilities for social amenities, poor support for agricultural initiatives and poor road maintenance in different localities within the ward.
The following departments participated in the stakeholder engagement and shared the list of programs earmarked for the area. The various sector departments that formed part of the event, were the Dept of Health, Dept of Education, Home Affairs Dept, SAPS, Dept of Social Development, Eskom, and O.R. Tambo District Development Model Hub Office representing COGTA and DBSA.
In conclusion, the Municipality and the Traditional Leadership agreed that the challenge of the land claims and land invasion are one of the factors that are hindering the growth and the development of the city and joint working arrangements are highly proposed to improve the current challenges.
