The FF Plus will request the acting municipal manager of the Dipaleseng Local Municipality (Balfour, Greylingstad, Grootvlei), Johnny Mokgatsi, to take action against the Municipality's communications officer for failing to respond to the community's queries about service delivery and the Municipality's finances.
The officer is supposed to communicate the community's questions and complaints to the council for replies, but Dipaleseng's taxpayers are kept in the dark about these matters.
Urgent questions from various civil rights organisations and political groups are simply not answered.
Local residents have once again handed a list of grievances, pertaining to the Municipality's lack of basic service delivery in the towns under his jurisdiction, to the respective officer. No acknowledgement of receipt nor any other form of feedback had been received from the officer by the deadline of 3 February 2021.
According to the FF Plus branch chairperson in Dipaleseng, Carel Pienaar, the Municipality has not been taking service delivery seriously for years now. Vague promises are made during community development meetings, but there are no signs of progress.
Matters that need urgent attention include the shocking condition of roads, basic service delivery and the maintenance and replacement of outdated electricity infrastructure, which do not have the capacity to supply businesses with power.
Over the last financial year, the Municipality failed to collect outstanding power and water debts and as a result, suffered a loss of R7,4 million in power-related revenue and R10,5 million in water-related revenue.
According to the provincial second quarter report of 31 August 2020, Dipaleseng owes Eskom R62,5 million and 31% of the positions in its financial department are vacant.
The FF Plus will keep fighting for the loyal taxpayers in Dipaleseng's right to answers and proper service delivery, for which they are paying. Residents' complaints cannot simply be ignored by municipal officials.
Contact details: 084 652 9164 / 076 687 2830
