Sedibeng and Emfuleni residents demand services
Monday 27 October 2008 by Nic
Johannesburg - Residents from different areas of the Vaal will tomorrow embark on a peaceful march against the lack of service delivery and the non-removal of forty (40) council officials and councilors identified by a commission of enquiry. Residents will start to gather at 10am at the Vaal Show grounds in Veereniging to then proceed to Sedibeng Municipal Office where a memorandum of demands will be handed over to the Mayor of Sedibeng.
Lack of service delivery in the Vaal is a very serious problem and after more than 14 years of so-called democratic rule by the ANC government, many South Africans are still without basic services like water and sanitation. Residents of Kwa-Masiza (who will also be part of the march) have been without water and electricity for a period of over 5 years. The little water the residents have access to in the hostel is from rusty pipes while sewerage spills all over the hostel. In September this year, Emfuleni mayor Mr. Mushutudu again lied to the people of Kwa-Masiza that there services would be delivered to the hostel within a week. But the angry resident told him that he was making an empty promise just like those he told before.
Unity in Vaal Assembly Forum
Tomorrow’s march will bring together residents under Sedibeng and Emfuleni municipalities. These are the people who made it clear that they do not recognize the municipal demarcations that seek to divide the working class unity gained through the formation of the Vaal Assembly Forum that meets every Wednesday morning at the Sebokeng Zone 11 stadium. The meeting is attended by different community organizations in the Vaal and people are trying to organize around socio-economic problems they are facing.
Instead of building houses and making sure that people have access to water and sanitation, ward councilors are calling community meetings and requesting residents to vote for the African National Congress (ANC) again in the national elections next year. In Kwa-Masiza, Boiketlong, Zone 20 and Sonderwater, residents vowed that if there is no service delivery there will be NO VOTE!
Sedibeng municipality will be given just 7 working days to respond, and failing that other measures will be taken. People shall never again be used as voting objects.
Service delivery first, political power after!
For more information please contact Patrick Patra Sindane (Coalition Against Water Privatisation - CAWP) @ 073 052 7005 or Silumko Radebe @ 072 1737 268 or 011 333 8334
Nic
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