By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa led government officials on a presidential imbizo focusing on service delivery in the Sekhukhune District in Limpopo on Friday.
Ramaphosa engaged with residents directly at the imbizo and facilitating responses from Ministers on service delivery issues as raised by community members.
Themed ‘Leave No One Behind’, the Imbizo was held at the Motodi Sports Complex in Ga-Motodi Village in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality under the Sekhukhune District Municipality.
Ahead of the imbizo, residents of the Tubatse Local Municipality district said they were beset by daily service delivery challenges.
These challenges ranged from constant water and electricity shortages, dilapidated infrastructure, poverty, and unemployment.
During the Imbizo, a wide and diverse range of essential services were offered on-site, including Education, Transport, Voter Registration, Social Development and Health.
While in the Sekhukhune district, Ramaphosa also inspected progress on the R37 Steelproot-Driekop Interchange road construction project.
“The scope of the project involves new vertical and horizontal alignment, improvement of intersections and accesses, increasing the capacity of bridges and major culverts, ancillary works including fencing, guardrails, signs, and projects aimed at local community development”, government said.
Sophie Makine, who works as a street vendor in Burgersfort, said she would like to see the three spheres of government address the issue of water, dilapidated roads and unemployment.
“As you can see, I work as a street vendor in order to be able to provide for my children. However, I would like for the President to give our children jobs so that they can be independent as well. When it comes to issues of service delivery, the main challenges are water and bad roads. I am pleading with the President to give us a stable water supply, “Makine said.
Peter Kgagara from Makgemeng village said, “Our people are not getting RDPs from government; we are pleading with the President to please assist us in this manner. Another issue is the shortage of water; we do not have running taps in our yards, which we desperately need.
Another major issue is the potholes on the road. They are very dangerous and many have died from them. This really concerns me; can our government please assist us,” Kgagara said.
To date, Ramaphosa has visited seven provinces – North West, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Northern Cape, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal.
The District Development Model (DDM) is a cooperative governance initiative aimed at expediting service delivery through a district-centric approach.
This provides community members with a unique opportunity to engage with senior government leaders face-to-face.
The presidency said the engagement is designed “to foster collaboration between the government, residents and businesses with the goal to eventually transform all districts in South Africa.
The Sekhukhune District has potential for economic growth but requires plenty of work and collaboration to tap into that potential.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of GCIS.