Poor service: More protests
2009-08-10 10:04
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Malamulele - A Limpopo community is the latest to join the growing list of communities protesting about poor service delivery.
Residents of Malamulele, near Thohoyandou, marched to the offices of the Thulamela local municipality on Friday demanding that the town get its own local municipality.
"We want to break away from Thulamela and have our own municipality. We have the support of the Malamulele Sunrise Committee, which was formed to ensure better service delivery in the area," said Malamulele South African Civic Organisation (SANCO) chairperson, Foster Mtshabi.
He said Malamulele residents were tired of broken promises made by the municipality.
"The municipality has been developing Thohoyandou, the nearest town, while neglecting to develop Malamulele," said Mtshabi.
Malamulele and Thohoyandou were two of the towns incorporated into Thulamela local municipality by the Demarcation Board in 2001.
Mtshabi said Malamulele qualifies to be a separate municipality based on the number of councillors it has.
"Out of 38 ward councillors in Thulamela, 14 are from Malamulele. Nearby Mutale is a local municipality on its own, with no more than 15 ward councillors. Why can't we stand on our own?" asked Mtshabi.
Department of local government and housing spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, said he was aware of the Malamulele community's concerns.
He said, however, that the demarcation issue needed to be addressed by the national Demarcation Board, not provincial government.