South African Communist Party

Moutse District:            Private Bag X 521,       Elandsdroom 0485

            `                                                                                                          

4 September 2007

 

 

ATTENTION MR BROWN

 

THE SECRETARY TO THE PARLIAMENT

CAPE TOWN 8000

PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE OF DPLG

 

 

RE:       The unilateral incorporation of Moutse into Limpopo Province without the necessary proper consultation and participation of local communities as required by law

 

 

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 Mpumalanga, did not conduct public hearings, either jointly or separately. Mpumalanga only conducted unadvertised public hearings after the community protested the matter with a series of demonstrations including a march to the Union Buildings on the 5th December 2005. As a result of this, the public hearings were held – in extremis - on the 8th December 2005, a mere three days later. These hearings were not advertised on community radio or television or in any print media whatsoever. The community was not informed of their right to submit written submissions, the community was not informed of the exact purpose of the hearing and its relationship to the administrative action being taken, nor was the public, at the time, informed that they could employ a legal representative to state their case, as it was a serious and complicated matter. These are only a few examples of how the authorities failed the community. Since 2005, the Moutse area has constantly protested, publicly and peacefully demonstrated and marched to have these decisions reversed that were taken without their direct involvement, consultation and participation. On the whole they have simply been ignored on both a provincial and national government level. What did the Limpopo legislature do ? Nothing ! There were neither consultations nor hearings.

 

As a direct result of being included in Limpopo Province, the Moutse district immediately experienced a huge drop in the quality of service provision and delivery and even the low level of service delivery in the area has gotten steadily worse and worse over the past months. This serves to illustrate that the provincial government had no real action plan as to how the province would provide services to Moutse after (Moutse) being incorporated. It also shows that the infrastructure for service delivery in this province was not designed to cope with the extra population that the incorporation of Moutse imposed on the already overburdened   province.

 

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 Mphumalanga Province.

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 Limpopo administration to provide students with transport to and from schools more than 14km from their places of residence.

 

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 Mankweng Hospital more than 450 km away, with no transport service made available to either patients or families to visit or return home.

                        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 Limpopo Province and therefore they cannot be trained to obtain employment.  All employment opportunities are reserved for the ‘native’ people of Limpopo and Moutse does not fall into that category.  It is humiliating to be treated like second class citizens in our country by Limpopo Provincial Government officials.

 

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:

 

  • Proper water reticulation.
  • Electricity.
  • Local roads are not maintained and the local government does not seem to have either the will or the funds to initiate such maintenance. This may contribute to the road accident rate, that in turn adds exerts extra pressure on the resources of the medical services.
  • Storm water and drainage is not properly controlled, with the effect that erosion is unchecked on agricultural land and school premises.
  • Local government authorities were never properly trained as to the requirements of their posts, and it would seem that the only real function they have is to occupy the office of ….and deplete the national treasury with inflated expense accounts.
  • Ward committees similarly lack proper training, as can be witnessed from the lack of effective action that is so desperately needed by the communities in the area.
  • Misuse and maladministration of public funds is rife, and infrastructure is actually downgraded continually as can be seen from water points and taps being replaced by water bowsers.

 

 

Since Matatiele serves as precedent when it successfully won the right to consultation before the Constitutional Court, it demonstrates that it is a requirement that all communities equally have the right to consultation at both local and before the provincial legislatures. We as a community expect that Moutse too is entitled to hearings at both local and provincial legislature level and we hope that the portfolio committee addresses and supports this.

 

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 South Africa invented provinces and neo colonial dependencies using arbitrary and whimsical reasons, doing so without regard for the people and the communities whose human rights were violated by such actions over past centuries. It is not appropriate in a country such as South Africa, one which espouses the democratic principles that it does, for such actions to continue to be perpetrated by a government of the people. It is shocking and completely contrary to all that our country stands for that an area like Moutse can be apportioned willy-nilly into any province that the government of the day feels expedient, with the result being that the community suffer. It is even more atrocious that the continued justified protests of the people have been ignored and that the problem still has not been resolved.

 

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 Northern Province. In 1986 the government again attempted to incorporate Moutse against the area’s best interest’s, this time into what was formerly Kwa-Ndebele. Both attempts met with failure due to the strength of the protests by the people of Moutse and an abiding respect for due process and the rule of law. Historically the people of Moutse have been disadvantaged and it surely is time that the present democratic administrations redress the imbalance and put Moutse on the fast track to development. This can be done if Moutse is correctly incorporated with the views and needs of the local communities driving the process. We therefore invite the committee and all the honorable members not to support the bill.

 

We look forward to urgent action being taken on this issue.

 

 

 

                                               

The Distric organiser

Moutse SACP

COM  SEUN MOGOTJI

0827931194/

CO FAX 0119337113