Community starts group to clean up their streets

Sick of the lack of refuse removals, residents of Boikhutso township in Lichtenburg in the North West have started a group to clean their streets.

A painful sight of piles of rubbish on many street corners has been part of their lives as refuse collection has become one of the non-existent services in the Ditsobotla local municipality.

The community formed Boikhutso Kagosesha Foundation which is aimed at ensuring that their township is clean.

Vincent Phuphuma, an interim committee member of the organisation, said their organisation started as a cleaning campaign but gained momentum as it became clear that "our municipality has failed".

They are an apolitical structure that hopes to work with whoever emerges victorious after the local government elections.

Poor road infrastructure greets you as you get into the area and unmaintained public amenities including the stadiums and community halls.

Donald Lethoko, another member of the committee said they started the movement because they “just wanted to help out with the basics".

Lethoko said they have also been donating to the committee from their own pockets to ensure that volunteers are paid.

However, one of the area's biggest employers, Clover, which is closing down its biggest cheese factory, couldn't take the failures of the municipality which had began impacting on its production.

The dairy company is already down-scaling operations in Litchenburg as it's relocating to Queensburgh in KwaZulu-Natal due to poor service delivery by the Ditsobotla local municipality.

This is one of the areas seemingly seen as a municipality where the ANC could be ousted.

EFF leader Julius Malema visited Ditsobotla recently and asked residents to give the EFF just one term to give them better services.

Cordelia Shai, EFF's North West provincial command team member who has been deployed in Ditsobotla, said the municipality was a perfect example of what maladministration and incompetency do.

"We are confident that we will do well here... the EFF just needs five years to show people of Ditsobotla what it can do, they now know what the ANC is capable of after being in power and failing," Shai said.

She said among their priorities is eradicating nepotism, hiring people with experience and skills to turn the struggling municipality around.

"Here in Ditsobotla, if you're not affiliated to the ANC, you'll never be employed irrespective of how qualified you are," Shai said.