FTLM SOLMA lacks cogent plan, says SADA
BURGERSFORT/GA-NKOANA
According to the Socialist Agenda of Dispossessed Africans (SADA), the State of the Local Municipality Address (SOLMA), which was recently delivered by Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM) Mayor, Cllr Eddie Maila, lacks a comprehensive plan to address serious poor service delivery challenges faced by the communities.
Maila delivered his 2024 SOLMA at Ga-Nkwana Sports Grounds on Friday 28 June 2024. Presenting the governance report to the community, Maila outlined that the local municipality has attained unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor General and has a 100% spending on Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
However, SADA President, Aubrey Ngwatle, said the party has noted that while they acknowledge the 100 percent spending on grants meant for service delivery, the local municipality still has a long way to go as there are areas which needs serious attention.
“Townships like Praktiseer have been neglected for more than eight years without tarred internal roads to link all new extensions. There is also no plans for street lights. We have also noted that the high mast lights in the area have been non-operational since they were installed in the past 7 years in Praktiseer and other areas of Tubatse,” said Ngwatle.
He added that the party is also concerned about the poor workmanship of the multi-million-rand Praktiseer Library project which was abandoned and left incomplete by a contractor in 2023.
About R12 million of the R16 million budget was spent by FTLM on the unfinished project which was set to be completed by June 2023.
The library structure looks far from completion after it was abandoned in the first phase of construction.
“We are also concerned with internal paved road which links Leboeng Village main road to sections like Rutseng, which has been a shoddy work from the beginning. The paving is already decaying and the municipality is planning to spend more money to rehabilitate the road,” explained Ngwatle.
Raising other poor service delivery concerns, Praktiseer residents expressed dissatisfaction about the effectiveness and safety of the recently installed speed humps in the township.
According to residents, the speed humps have no signs and are not marked, posing danger to motorists especially at night in low visibility conditions.
They say the municipality should have addressed the concern to improve road safety among the communities.
