Durban – KZN Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza has presented the needy community of Hluthankungu village, in Ubuhlebezwe Municipality, with food parcels and garden tools to encourage them to plant their own food.
Khoza said this was aimed at giving the community a guarantee that the government cared about the rural communities and had not forgotten them, giving them a ray of hope.
She cited the government’s service provision as its primary mandate to communities, during the department’s Operation Sigalelekile, held at Hluthankungu on Monday.
Addressing the Hluthankungu community, Khoza said the government continued to respond to the demands for jobs, equality and justice.
“As a government we focus on five overlapping priorities of accountability, effective governance systems, creating jobs and targeting available human capital. We have never derailed our priorities of creating a safe environment for all citizens in this province,” she said.
Khoza expressed concern that women and children continued to suffer abuse daily.
“It is worrying that women continue to suffer in the hands of the people that are supposed to protect them. Even in areas led by amakhosi, women and children are not safe there.
“We all need to form a barrier to protect women and children. Men are the ones that should create a safe environment for women and children,” she said.
Khoza said it was encouraging to see the justice sector clamping down on cases of gender-based violence by ensuring that perpetrators received lengthy prison sentences.
“No one should think women have the upper hand. No woman owes any abuser. We want to caution women not to keep quiet when they suffer abuse from their partners. Women must not shield their partners who abuse them or their children,” she said.
The MEC said her department had a victim empowerment programme to cushion all those who were the victims of abuse.
“We urge women not to stay in abusive relationships because they are financially dependent on their abusers while the government has various empowerment programmes to save them. Equally, we want to see all men dedicating their lives to protect women from any form of abuse,” Khoza said.
She added that the government had committed itself to ensuring that service delivery reached every sector of society.
“We are a caring government for the people, and we have a responsibility to keep the fires burning to ensure that no one is left behind as we roll out services,” she said.
The mayor of Harry Gwala District Municipality, Zamo Nxumalo, said the municipality was responding promptly to the needs of the people.
“We know what our communities need and we have to respond appropriately. We need to revive our local economy and ensure that locals benefit from their towns, instead of being outmanoeuvred by outsiders,” said Nxumalo.
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