MP Souza encourages ‘do it yourself first’ spirit
MATSETSA – Stand up and be counted. The culture Lugongolweni Member of Parliament (MP) Joseph Souza is promoting is the spirit of ‘do it yourself first,’ in his constituency.
Reacting to relentless complaints from residents about the poor state of the roads in the constituency, Souza, with the assistance of Indvuna Yenkhundla Jabulani Mamba and the Bucopho, Mpendulo Simelane, have taken it upon themselves to start the road rehabilitation process while waiting for government’s assistance.
Noteworthy is that this exercise is not funded by government, but Souza is claiming to have already spent about E30 000 to ensure commencement of the road gravelling process. These costs include the refuelling of the vehicles that are being used for this development project. For the past days, Souza literally got himself dirty as he joined residents in fixing the problematic road.
The experienced legislator, brother to the late businessperson Victor Gamedze, not only took part in the gravelling of the road, but offered the working tools, including the grader along with other essentials. Earlier this week, Souza was found by the Eswatini News busy with other residents fixing the road and looked to be enjoying every moment of it, as he literally got his hands dirty. Souza told this publication that the need to rehabilitate the road in question was not new, as residents have been complaining about the challenge.
“Something needed to be done, because the issue of the bad roads in my constituency has always been a concern for the residents. We have been hoping that the relevant ministry would assist in this regard, but because of the delay, we took a decision to start the work ourselves,”said the legislator said. He pointed out though that this did not mean they were no longer expecting assistance from government.
“This is just a responsibility we decided to take collectively, including myself, indvuna yenkhundla and bucopho. As you can see, our bucopho has even offered his tipper truck to assist with the road rehabilitation process. We are supporting each other with the needed financial costs to address the concerns of the people who elected us into parliament,” Souza, a renowned transport businessperson in his area, said.
Difficult
Due to its bad state, public transport owners have decided to desert it, making it difficult for the residents to commute to work, school or hospitals on a daily basis.
“You would be fortunate to get even one public transport using this road to ferry residents, because it is getting worse by each passing day. The situation has been made worse by the fact that it has been raining persistently in recent days, causing further damage to the road,” Souza further said.
Indvuna Yenkhundla Mamba agreed with the MP, stating that they cannot fold their arms and wait for government to assist.
“We know that at some point, government will come in with assistance but in the meantime, people should still be able to use the road. This is what actually motivated us to utilise whatever we have to kick-start this process, so that public transport owners can be encouraged to use the road,”
Mamba said.
He further conceded that residents are forced to walk by foot long distance just to get public transport.
“This is a challenge because some of the residents are teachers, while others are employed in distant companies. We have children who attend school on the daily basis and you find them walking very early in the mornings to schools that are far to be honest,” he said.
Meanwhile, Souza thanked the residents who agreed to assist with the rehabilitation of the road, saying such support came in handy as it made their work much easier and quicker.
“We are very proud of our residents because instead of sitting comfortable at their respective homes and complaining, they sacrificed their time and energy to assist us to fix the road. This is highly commendable,” Souza said.
The MP, who is now serving his second term in parliament, said they were working around the clock to finish the project soon.
“Our mandate remains to serve the interests of the people who elected us into parliament. I have already forked out around E30 000 to assist with the road rehabilitation process. The objective is to see development in our constituency and fixing bad roads is part of that,” Souza said.