Piet Retief - After days of protests in front of the municipality’s main offices in central Piet Retief, the concerned community has changed its tactics.
It has since launched an online petition (on Change.org) to gather as many signatures as possible so that Mpumalanga Premier, Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, the MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mandla Ndlovu and Gert Sibande district mayor, Walter Mngomezulu come to hear their concerns.
The petition was started over the weekend and it has gained a significant number of signatures, especially from the business community.
“If you haven’t signed it yet, please go do so. It takes less than a minute. Mkhondo Petition for Change. We have started this petition to use as an attachment when inviting the premier, Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, the MEC Mandla Ndlovu & District Mayor Walter Mngomezulu to show the vast concern of the Mkhondo residents.
“We’d like for them to visit our home as it has been far too long and we’d like to address all the issues at hand. Electricity, Water, Roads, Refuse, Corruption,” read part of the motivation for people to sign the petition.
The Mkhondo local municipality has been in the news after its mayor, Mthokozisi Simelane, was last week accused of using public money to attend Durban July partying.
This was after Simelane’s name and pictures of him posing with expensive alcohol were splashed all over social media. It was alleged that together with some municipal officials and councillors, they planned and arranged a strategic workshop in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa’s party ground.
That was allegedly done to coincide with the Durban July fun so that the municipality could fully fund the trip, hotel accommodation, meals and transport as an official expense.
The note which was posted on social media claimed that the mayor, his partner and friends were having the times of their lives using state funds while the municipality was in the dark and without water for days.
But Simelane denies all this, claiming it’s a smear campaign as his birthday was not even celebrated in Durban.
The revelations sparked a protest where the angry community of Piet Retief took to the offices of the municipality near the South Africa-Eswatini border.
Roqaiyah Omar, an activist from Mkhondo who has been at the forefront of the petition to Mtsweni-Tsipane, said their actions were not politically motivated, hence they never called for the resignation of the mayor, but they demanded that services due to citizens be rendered accordingly.
She said as soon as they had gathered enough signatures, the results will be sent to Mtsweni-Tsipane for her action.
“We are trying to get as many signatures as possible so that we show there is a number of people behind it and who are concerned by the state of affairs in the municipality,” she said.
Simelane is yet to respond to the claims made in the petition. His phone was switched for the better part of Monday.
Mkhondo is reportedly one of the municipalities in Mpumalanga owing Eskom. As a results, power cuts have become frequent so much that some areas only have power for few hours in a day.
sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za
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