Dichoeung residents demand proper roads
DICHOEUNG
Disgruntled residents of Dichoeung Village in Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality (MLM) Ward 18, have on Friday 14 March 2025, protested to hand-over a memorandum of demands at the municipal offices in Jane Furse to demand proper internal roads.
The protesting community, leaded by Dichoeung Renewal Programme Community Forum, said they were protesting because they are tired of empty promises made by MLM Mayor Cllr Merah Mahlase, whom they state committed to upgrade their roads in January 2025.
Residents said Mahlase made the commitment during a community meeting held on 17 July 2024 at Dichoeung Tribal Office. According to residents, during the community meeting Mayor Mahlase promised to send engineers in January 2025 to start with processes of upgrading their village main road. However, Mahlase could not honour her commitment.
Dichoeung community leader, Johannes Choenyane, told the publication that they protested because they have been complaining about the bad condition of their main road for many years.
“We demand the upgrading of our main road from Bafedi to Mmabahloko. This is the only main road and very busy, used by a lot of people including our public transport, scholar transport, ambulances and police vehicles. It has been a very long time, we really need it upgraded,” he said.
Choenyane indicated that a number of unfortunate incidents where cars got damaged as a result of the dusty road were reported to the community leaders.
“It is frustrating because we have to continue to traverse this dangerous gauntlet while the municipality is watching and doing nothing. We don’t get proper services here because of the poor state of the road,” he said.
Choenyane said they will not rest until their demands are met.
“Nobody deserves to live like this in a democratic country, we cannot allow it. As residents, we agreed not to easily accept this fate. We will fight until our living conditions are improved,” he said.
The municipality was given seven working days to respond to the memorandum. Attempts to get Makhuduthamaga Municipality’s response bore no fruits after its Spokesperson, Thomas Mashabela, could not respond to the enquiries sent by the publication.
