Parliament, Friday, 16 March 2018 – The slow pace of service delivery, lack of clean running water, the poor state of sanitation, impassable access roads, dilapidated schools and poor early childhood development facilities, dominated discussions during the Taking Parliament to the People (TPTTP) visit by Parliamentarians in uMzimvubu this week.
In a public meeting held at the Mount Frere Community Hall by a delegation of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the delegation leader, Mr Mntomhle Khawula said: “The issue of underdevelopment in this area is a matter that government must take note of. It’s a matter that is beyond the scope of the municipality. Swift intervention is needed by the government to develop this region. The passion in their demand for development must be commended.”
Mr Khawula also expressed concern about the irony of water shortages in a region that has water in abundance with good seasonal rainfall. The uMzimvubu Local Municipality pledged to assist communities through rain harvesting projects and connecting various villages to the water grid.
The Departments of Education, Health and Social Development also made tangible commitments with specified timelines to address service delivery issues at different sites that were visited by the NCOP delegation.
Despite threats by some community members that they would not vote if their lives are not improved, Mr Khawula described the Mt Frere public meeting as fruitful and characterised by robust engagements that demonstrated the passion with which the rural communities pursued development. He said rural areas facing huge development backlogs should receive better attention. “In the future, the choice of sites will need to be considered carefully. There was an outcry in this meeting that we focused more on sites that were closer to towns, that are better off than the ones in deep rural areas,” said Mr Khawula.
The NCOP members, supported by their counterparts in the Provincial Legislature of the Eastern Cape, concluded their three-day visit aimed at conducting in loco inspections of development projects, to assess progress made in addressing citizens’ concerns and to report back on the outcomes of their 2016 visit under the auspices of the Taking Parliament to the People campaign. The Umzimvubu group of NCOP members was part of seven delegations that crisscrossed the Alfred Nzo District and Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipalities this week as part of the report back campaign following their 2016 visit.
Taking Parliament to the People, is a flagship programme, that is driven by the NCOP to bring Parliament closer to the people and break distance and poverty barriers between the electorate and their parliamentary representatives for the sole purpose of improving service delivery and people’s quality of life.
ISSUED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE UMZIMVUBU NCOP DELEGATION LEADER, MR MNTOMHLE KHAWULA
For media enquiries or interviews with Mr Khawula, please contact:
Abel Mputing
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 2111
Cell: 082 2247477
e-Mail: amputing@parliament.gov.za
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