Friday the 3rd of May 2024 saw Vumbanani for Peacebuilding hosting a pre Government Elections Community Indaba in Elim, Makhado Municipality, Limpopo under the theme; Service Delivery. The Indaba was aimed at bringing all the active parties representatives under one roof to hold a bold, honest, open and binding debate on how they are going to change service delivery issues in Elim with special focus on the bulk water supply and decent sanitation. There were 9 parties present; African National Congress(ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Democratic Alliance (DA), All Progressive Congress (APC), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Action South Africa, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Action Alliance Development Party (AADP) and Vryheidsfront (VFP), now known as Freedom Front Plus. Among the invited stakeholders were; the Vhembe District Municipality, the Makhado Municipality, elected and non-elected leaders, chapter 79 and 9 institutions and community members.
Directed by Maringa Believe and Maringa Innocent, the Indaba started at 10:20am at Waterval Community Hall in Elim. Among the invited guests were, Makhado Municipality, Elim Business Forum, Elim Hlanganani Care of the Aged, TAC, Traditional Council, Traditional Healers, EPWP, Victim Empowerment and Kagisano. On media, we had Makhado FM and Elim FM. E News failed to attend last minute but promised to write an article on the Indaba after going through the live-streamed video on VFP Facebook group. On the other hand, Mirror newspaper said they had already covered a similar story in Johannesburg so they could not repeat.
The event was successfully attended by 386 participants drawn from ward 1, 2, 5, 15, 16, 19 and 20 within Makhado Municipality. 257 females, 129 males, of which 265 were under the age of 35 and 121 above. Community members were very bold and asked relevant questions as they demanded clarity on several service delivery challenges, including the Lemana TVET College progress. The issues of access to clean water and better roads were the first to be raised, and most participants echoed the challenges. One Mr Makondo, a former principal showed concern on the fact that Elim is not developing education wise, only malls are being built and no tertiary institutions to absorb the many unoccupied youths in the area. Most villages in Elim do not have accessible roads and bridges, a situation that forces some learners who school in Magangeni and Shirley to miss school during rain seasons.
Secondly, access to clean water and decent sanitation brewed some noise in the house, as many participants had a lot of concerns on this burning issue. The promised bulk water supply from Albasin dam that is taking forever to be implemented was said to be fuelling the water crisis in Elim, especially the hospital that is now operating with very little water. A Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) member, Marvelous Makhubele from Magangeni Village, spoke about the critical water shortage at Elim Hospital where patients are supposed to bring their own water. The overall situation of ablutions is detestable and an eyesore. Participants spoke of both the ruling party and the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) being useless as nothing has changed in the community. Many boreholes are not functioning, yet they only need small attention and inexpensive maintenance, of which VDM is failing to do.
Answering to all these questions, all political parties admitted to the various challenges that the Elim community is facing. Action South Africa, with in-discriminant confidence, stated that; aside from facilitating the improvement of service delivery, it is also going to improve the quality of education by making sure that all learners are equal regardless of schools attended. They also mentioned the removal of the tendering system, indicating that it is marred with corruption and unfair political practices that disadvantage community members and in turn kills the nation economically.
Going forward, ANC, with little confidence, said it would engage with citizens to improve education quality and create new jobs. On the other hand, DA was vibrant with promises of better governmental administration policies that would see qualified personnel occupying leadership positions in the department. This was their vigour declaration of war against the nepotism system that is leading to the dilapidation of South Africa as a whole. The Benny Mayengane`s party, AADP representative also echoed the embezzling of funds and said his party would ensure that all policies would favour the masses.
With the amount of time and dedication spent on organizing the event, VFP was however disappointed by other party representatives as they had nothing to offer the community. Without the need for deeper scrutiny, one could easily see that they came with nothing prepared. A good example is that of the MK representative who simply asked community members to try them and nothing else. VFP felt that Elim is very much undermined by both political parties and relevant stakeholders, as most of them failed to attend, and a few who attended came empty-handed.
In conclusion, the DA and Action South Africa representatives and community members applauded VFP for holding such an important event which Munghana Lonene FM radio had failed to bring to Elim as it had in other areas in Limpopo. VFP also took note of the fact that a united people is able to confront and hold leaders accountable. Whenever funds allow, the organisation would keep on holding such events where community members are given an opportunity to meet and converse with their leaders in building a better, developed Elim.
Watch us on https://fb.watch/rZU2D-Zy7j/
