Violent protests cost Vuwani housing grant
The troubled Vuwani area in Limpopo has lost out on its municipal infrastructure grant to provide services such as RDP houses.
Yesterday MEC for cooperative governance Jerry Ndou announced that the Collins Chabane local municipality, which includes Vuwani, has lost out on the grant for the past two years due to ongoing civil unrest. The area has been plagued by violent protests since 2016 after residents refused to be incorporated into a newly formed municipality from Makhado.
Ndou said construction of RDP houses in the area has been halted since the flare up. He said the money from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) was redirected to other services.
“It is a problem because according to the Municipal Demarcation Board they fall under the Collins Chabane Municipality and their budget for service delivery is allocated there.
“They don’t allow some of services to take place such building of RDP houses. However there is progress because we managed to open the traffic departments and public works is also grading roads,” he said.
Ndou was speaking after a Limpopo government executive council briefing in Polokwane yesterday where he said the government met with the Pro-Mkahado Demarcation Task Team (PMDTT) last week.
“We will be meeting with the Minister of Cooperative Governance Zweli Mkhize to deliberate on the issues raised by PMDTT and the outcome will be provided next week.”
This week residents of Vuwani suspended their demonstrations following an agreement with the government that their services will be provided by Vhembe district municipality.