Villagers do it for themselves and build own hall
Ntwala villagers in Nqamakhwe have taken matters into their own hands and built themselves a community hall and a dipping tank.
They celebrated their brand new R250,000 hall and tank on Friday.
Community leader Thobile Manqalaza told the Daily Dispatch that the money to build the hall and dipping tank had been raised through sand mining in the area.
“We have four companies that pay subsidies to the community for mining sand in this location,” said Manqalaza.
“We used the money to buy material and also employ people from this area.”
To build the hall, Manqalaza said the villagers had employed four local and skilled workers on a rotation system. The posts came with a monthly salary of R3,000.
“We did not want people to be left out. We chose this system so that every household could have bread on their table,” said Manqalaza. Ntwala village has never had a community hall or a dipping tank before.
Manqalaza said material left over from building the community hall was used for the tank.
Mnquma district’s rural development and agrarian reform manager Linda Silevu applauded the community.
“This is something special. In most cases, you would expect conflicts related to misuse of community coffers but in this area it was properly managed,” Silevu said.
“In this unveiling, we as the department came to appreciate and congratulate what the people of Ntwala have done.
“We came here to give them support.”
Manqalaza said the community would now set its sights on fencing fields for ploughing and empowering women in the area through the Ntwala village co-operative.
The community also have a training centre at which women in the area are taught about farming and crop treating.
“We want to empower our women. We also want them to be part of developing our community through agricultural ways,” said Manqalaza.
Mnquma municipality mayor Sithembiso Ncetezo was impressed with the community.
“There is nothing here that even suggests there were problems in the building phase of this project,” said Ncetezo.
“They came to us and said they have done all of the work and invited us for the handover ceremony. We have agreed to assist them in maintaining these sites and to the possibility of improving the roads.”
He said the municipality was in the process of providing toilets in the area.