Residents threaten council after civic education
MBABANE – Some residents of Mahwalala yesterday caused a stir during a civic education for the local government elections, which was held at Mbabane Central High School.
This was after they were not given a chance to make their submissions.
It was immediately after the Mbabane Municipal Council’s Community Liaising Officer, Simanga Masilela, had requested a closing prayer, which made aggrieved residents to rise from their seats and demanded to be heard. The residents who were led by Nganono Manyatsi, felt that they were being sidelined and they threatened to block the council from entering their terrain.
Areas under Ward One include Hilltop, Mahwalala, Zone 5 and 6, Manzana, Zone 1, Nkwalini Zone 2 and three.
The angry residents feel sidelined by the council, following the cancellation of a civic education meeting which was supposed to be held at Mahwalala Sports Ground.
Instead the council continued with the civic education at Mbabane Central High School and was attended by slightly over 20 people. The civic education lasted 30 minutes and residents who were led by Manyatsi were not given a platform to either submit or make comments, something that fuelled their anger to them. Manyatsi made it known that because the council had refused them an opportunity to raise their concerns, and had made it succinctly that it (council) would not set foot at Mahwalala to conduct civic education, they (residents) were also not going to allow the council to collect waste or pass through to their landfill.
Landfill
Of note was that the entire town’s waste was collected and ended at the landfill at Mahwalala. Manyatsi minced no words stating that they would ensure that they passed the message to other residents who would ascertain that council is blocked from the area. “Council should use another route when going to deposit waste at the landfill, because we will not allow their trucks to pass through here,” he said.
Manyatsi said they would block council for sidelining and refusing to hold the civic education at Mahwalala. He said they wanted transparency in the elections and not what was happening.
According to Manyatsi, they were told by the council that they were done with educating Ward 1 and would not come to Mahwalala.
Manyatsi said they were looking forward to the civic education and had a lot of questions to ask the council. He said they supported the elections and wanted the residents to understand what was expected of them. Manyatsi said there were issues circulating that when one does not pay rates they were not eligible to vote. This, he said they wanted council to explain to the residents.
“We do not pay rates at Mahwalala and Manzana and do not have lease agreements. All these requirements by council to be eligible to vote do not exist for Ward 1 occupants,” decried Manyatsi.
Manyatsi said they therefore needed the council to explain all the aforementioned things to them and stop avoiding them.
Responding to Manyatsi, the council’s Information and Public Relations Officer (IPRO), Lucky Tsabedze, said they were conducting civic education for the local government elections.
Tsabedze said the process for the local government elections had already started with registration and the civic education exercise, where they teach people about the importance of voting.
Covered
He stated that they were conducting the civic education at Ward 1 and would be continuing in other wards, as well as those not covered. Tsabedze stated that the civic education was successfully carried out from their point of view and they were very pleased. He said they had very healthy conversations with the residents.
Tsabedze said the emphasis was on civic education, although some residents mentioned other matters which were not in the agenda.
The IPRO said the civic education was a government process which they were conducting on its behalf. He said registration concludes on February 24, 2023, having started on January 16, 2023. Thereafter, he said nominations would enter into other stages which include the issuance of a voters roll, nomination stage and finally the ministry would announce other stages.
Tsabedze said they chose to rotate the venues, hence the meeting was held at Mbabane Central, which was also under Ward 1. He said there were other people who did not have the opportunity to attend the meetings when held at Mahwalala, and yesterday they got the chance. Furthermore, he said the weather conditions were not permitting for them to hold the civic education in open space at Mahwalala.
When questioned on the issue that the meeting was successful in their point of view, yet only a handful attended, Tsabedze said it was due to the wet weather conditions that most people did not attend. He also mentioned that the process was democratic and people could choose to participate and not to participate.