Neglected Mabitsi villagers concern about “extreme poor service delivery”

Mabitsi

The community of Mabitsi Village in Ward 12 of Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality (EMLM), say they are tired of empty promises from government which they say subjects them to “extreme poor service delivery” in their village.

The residents are complaining about the bad state of roads and water shortage struggles that they faced and have been faced for many years. The community states that they are fed-up of the empty promises made by government officials during their visits in the area.

The community is complaining about the poor condition of D4328 Road that stretches 14kms and connects Mabitsi, Mmotwaneng, Vaalbank, Serithing, Ga-Hlopha and Moeding Villages.

They said the road is not accessible at all and full of dongas and trenches that make it difficult for motorists to access the villages.

Residents say they also facing struggles of water access which subjects them to draw drinking water from nearest rivers and streams.

To vent their anger against poor services, some of residents of concerned villages are vowing that they will not take part in the upcoming general elections on Wednesday 29 May, while others threaten to boycott the polls citing that “voting for government is useless to our lives”.

In January 2023, the affected villagers staged a total-shutdown complaining about poor services, which included poor roads and water shortages in main.

During the protest, MEC for Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure in Limpopo, Nkakareng Rakgoale, visited the area to address the community.

Rakgoale told the demonstrators that her department appointed a consulting engineer to carry out designs on D4328 Road in a standard design process that would take about eight months, with the detailed design report as the last stage of the process.

During the engagement, MEC Rakgoale committed that the D4328 Road will be included in the 2023/2024 financial year budget and will be implemented by Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL). However, the road project was excluded in the budget.

Kali Maelane, EFF PR Councillor in EPMLM, said the people are becoming increasingly frustrated about government empty promises.

“The community is worried that there is nothing happening in the village in terms of services. The government keeps on disappointing us, they promised us roads and drinkable water but that is not happening,” he said.

Maelane indicated that many villagers have lost hope in the government and vowing not to take part in the upcoming elections, however, he said the EFF is not supporting the move.

“On our side as the EFF, we are not promoting voters’ boycott. We are encouraging the people to go out in numbers and vote for the party that will make their living environment a better place,” he said.

RAL Spokesperson, Danny Legodi, told the paper that the project for D4328 Road is near finalisation of

the design stage.

“The designs are now being assessed for environmental authorisation. The project team is in constant

engagement with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to facilitate the authorisation of

borrow-pits. This is an important step that has to be compliant with the laws of the country,” he said.

Legodi said the costing of the project will follow after the finalisation of the designs.

“The Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure, together with Roads Agency Limpopo are

committed to afford the process all the attention it deserves and ensure that adequate time is allowed

for these critical steps to be implemented to achieve the best quality road for the communities,”

concluded Legodi.

SDM Spokesperson, Lemson Moropjane, could not respond to messages sent by the paper when requesting a comment.