Colville residents staged a protest in St Peters Road yesterday. Picture: Soraya Crowie
RESIDENTS staged protests in Galeshewe and Colville this week after their electricity was blocked, while they stated that the annual municipal games event that was attended by councillors amounted to frivolous expenditure.
EFF chief whip Thandeka Landella said that communities were shown no mercy while they were still struggling to obtain their social grant payments due to a number of delays and technical glitches.
“The community is willing to pay but they do not have the money. They have been plunged into darkness for over a week. The municipality should grant a reprieve until the South African Social Security Agency rectifies its mistakes,” said Landella.
ANC regional secretary Wende Marekwa indicated that a decision was taken last week that ANC councillors in the Frances Baard District should not participate in the South African Municipal Sports and Recreation Association (Samsra) games this year.
“It has come to our attention that there have been instances of deviation from approved budgets to make provision for travel and subsistence expenses for councillors to attend the Samsra games. In our view, these games deviate from our original mandate of rendering municipal services,” said Marekwa.
He believed that expenditure on the municipal games would result in fruitless and wasteful expenditure for already overburdened municipalities.
“We must emphasise that these actions are not in line with our commitment to ensure a sound financial management system and maintain accountability and transparency to our broader constituency. It is our duty to safeguard the resources and ensure that they are utilised prudently.”
Marekwa advised that the funds be redirected from the Samrsa budget to address service delivery issues.
He urged that recent incidents of deviation and fruitless expenditure be identified and reviewed.
“Proper financial controls and oversight mechanisms must be implemented to prevent future occurrences.”
Sol Plaatje Municipality spokesperson Thoko Riet stated that although the trip was approved by council with recommendations, the municipality will not fund the municipal games due to cost-containment measures.
“The teams have been fund-raising for this trip since the beginning of the year,” she said.