South African Communist Party
Moutse District: Private
Bag X 521, Elandsdroom 0485
`
4 September
2007
ATTENTION MR BROWN
THE SECRETARY TO THE PARLIAMENT
PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE OF DPLG
RE: The unilateral
incorporation of Moutse into
Honourable
Members of the Portfolio Committee,
The Moutse
District is one of the many districts which were affected by the passing of the
12th Amendment Bill and
the cross boundary municipalities repeal act. That is in itself the subject of
considerable doubt. Regardless and disregarding the law, it had the effect of
forcing certain areas which straddled the border of two provinces to become
part of either one or the other province. The process by which an area or
municipality became part of one province or the other was not only fatally
flawed but ill considered, and this resulted in inappropriate and unjust
decisions being made as to which province an area became part of.
The correct
procedures were not followed with regard to which province Moutse would be
allocated to. The PAJA (PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE ACT) was ignored in its entirety by the authorities
and it was only after extensive demonstration, marches and public protest that
the authorities half heartedly involved the community to the least extent
possible.
Due to the
failure of the authorities, and the failure of government to react properly to
the many public protests and the outcry from the community since, we have no
option but to believe that the decisions taken were unjust. This is especially
evident when considering that the two provinces involved – Limpopo and
As a direct
result of being included in
Below are a
few key areas where service delivery is not what it was previously.
Education: Shortage
of stationary from the beginning of the year till now.
Teachers not received
their salaries
Others are remunerated
on wrong scales and grades
No
acknowledgement and recognition of the years of service with the
Insurance
policies are being cancelled due to reduced salaries.
School
budgets are decreased, are today less than did the schools did receive in the
past.
The
continued failure of the
Agriculture:
There are no known plans or provisions for Agricultural planning for the
community;
We
had a land care project going for the past 3 years but it had to be disbanded
now, because there is no supervision by Provincial or even Local Government.
Health: People had to be transferred to
The
local hospitals are substandard and not properly equipped to deal with the
demands of our community.
The
contract that Mphumalanga Province had with Gauteng Province providing
assistance to our people has been cancelled due to the transfer to Limpopo
Province and the Limpopo Province did not enter or renewed the contract to care
for our medical needs previously met by the Gauteng Province – this was done in
the face of knowing quite well that there is not the capacity to deliver even
the most basic of healthcare services.
Road and Transport:
No plans are in place to
upgrade the poor roads.
The
last time that the gravel roads have been graded was 8 years ago.
The
MEC for transport came to the community where he lied and misled. Making false
promises and then for the show of it recruited 10 aspirant Traffic Officials to
be trained to work in our community, these people have been disappointed
because they were sent back to the community without training. The reasons given are that it is because they
are not from
Housing: The
housing that has been provided is completely substandard.
Many
houses are incomplete, some have no roofs, others have no windows or doors,
many of them are actually only foundations with no walls.
Almost
all the houses suffer from plumbing and electrical problems and defects.
There
is now a further plan afoot to build another 500 houses – while the previous
houses built are still incomplete or unfit for human inhabitation.
It is also
imperative that the portfolio committee take cognisance that these problems are
part of a much wider problem, as can be seen from the statistics released by
the United Nations that prove that Limpopo overall suffers from a much larger
degree of corruption than does Mpumalanga.
In addition
to the above failures by the Provincial Government, Local Government has
dismally failed to provide services such as:
Since
Matatiele serves as precedent when it successfully won the right to
consultation before the
We are
further demanding that all parties affected be the Cross-Boundary
Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Amendment Bill be invited to attend and express their view before both
committees (Justice and Local & Provincial Government) which deals with the
cross boundary municipalities repeal act when it does take oral
submissions.
We are also
demanding, in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, that the
recording of 15 Nov 2005, when the vote in the National assembly took place be
immediately made available and produced before the committee and presented to
the affected communities, and failing that, an explanation must be given as to
why all request have been ignored and why the recording of the vote, that is a
matter of public record continues to be withheld. Without transparency there
can be no claim that the vote was legitimate.
We must
especially view the above application in context of South Africa’s and the
African Continent’s past history, where the apartheid government and colonial
powers ran rough shod and chopped up into pieces the African continent and
countries. And where
In conclusion,
we must also point out that Moutse was at the forefront of the struggle against
unilateral actions taken by the apartheid government era. It must be considered
that when in 1979 the very same geographic incorporation was attempted, into
what was then
We look
forward to urgent action being taken on this issue.
The Distric organiser
Moutse SACP
COM SEUN MOGOTJI
0827931194/
CO FAX 0119337113