Lekwa municipal offices under reconstruction

Construction workers hard at work to rebuild Lekwa municipal offices in Sakhile.

STANDERTON – Taxpayers’ money is yet again under the spotlight.  This time the money is going down the drain, not because of Lekwa Municipality, but due to the community that was supposed to protect what is rightly their property.  Instead, irresponsible members of the community went on rampage and destroyed property during the protest march in 2014.

The march was calling for the Executive Mayor, Cllr Caroline Morajane, the Speaker of the Council Cllr Linda Dhlamini and the Municipal Manager Mr Linda Tshabalala to step down. Marchers under the leadership of SANCO, which is an alliance with the ruling party the ANC, went on a rampage on their way back into Sakhile after they have handed over a memorandum to the Executive at Lekwa Municipal offices in town.

They burned tyres and caused chaos in the township making roads inaccessible for motorists.  They threw stones at Lekwa municipal offices breaking doors windows and structures. Police came in to disperse unruly protestors and they had to fire rubber bullets to disperse the angry crowds.

The unruly crowd returned later that evening and torched the entire municipal building causing millions of rands in damage.

Officials were forced to vacate the building that was destroyed by the fire and all the assets and resources used to serve the community were destroyed. Today it is back to square one to reconstruct the entire building. A construction company is on site to rebuild the offices. According to a construction worker the reconstruction started on 15 May and is scheduled to be completed in October this year.

It is a Johannesburg based company and the good news is that 12 of the labourers on the site are local people. One of the local workers said that one man’s misfortune is another’s gain.

The construction company is going to make millions out of this project and whatever amount is going to be spent to rebuild the structures, it could have been used to build a few RDP houses to change the lives of people.  These acts of property destruction and vandalism are hindering progression.  The Executive Mayor, Speaker and Municipal Manager are still in office but buildings belonging to the community were destroyed.  Only the taxpayers and people who could have had RDP houses built are suffering because of these foolish acts.

DM