
Matatiele residents dispersed from their place of gathering on Tuesday this week with no trust to (Member of the Executive Council) EC MEC of Transport Weziwe Tikane when it comes to decisively dealing with the bad road conditions. Residents who mostly came from rural areas gathered near the taxi rank on the station road patiently waiting for MEC Tikane to address them about her plans to deal with rural roads. After addressing the angry protesters who shouted at her and some were shouting at their leaders accusing them as selling out. Protesters were also labelling their leaders in the like of Teboho Stemere saying why they should trust, what is being said by the MEC. “We are not happy though we should give her a chance. We started fighting for better roads conditions since the year 2012. Since then politicians have been giving us promises without fulfilling them. It is the same thing with Tikane, we don’t trust her. She must prove us wrong. This dissatisfaction comes after Tikane held a meeting with the leadership of the protesters at the Municipal Council Chambers. In the meeting protesters depicted reasons on why they resorted to a protest action that lead to a total shutdown of the town. Speaking through their leader, Stemere, said they have identified a number of issues that hinder the completion of the gravelling of the roads. One of those is the centralised procurement of the diesel and mechanical repairs. Stemere said these items are only procured in Umthatha, a four hours’ drive distance. The unavailability of a District road engineer and a project manager remains a cause for concern and a serious contributing factor. Stemere also accused Public Works employees of being lazy and arriving late on sites. “We reported all these things to the authorities but in vain that is why we decided on a protest action to attract your attention,” Stemere concluded. Responding to this statement MEC Tikane said she has also identified these weaknesses mentioned by the protesters in her department. “The centralisation of procurement was done by Treasury Department at a national level but after we identified this hiccup thereupon we organised petrol card so that diesel can be procured in Matatiele. We are also employing a road district engineer for Alfred Nzo and will start work on 1st of September,” said Tikane. She said a project steering committee must be finalised this week under the leadership of the mayor so that on Monday the road construction machinery can be taken back to the sites. Tikane concluded by condemning the burning of the property when communities are protesting for genuine grievances of which the protesters distanced themselves from that action. In the same vain The Informer can report that a meeting to form a steering committee to look on the project was held at the municipality council chambers yesterday. According to Stemere the leader of protesters, yesterday’s meeting was attended by Chief Director of the Department, the regional leadership, Mayor and the councillors. He said the meeting dealt with many issues to make the project run smooth. “We are now looking forward to Monday as promised,” concluded Stemere.