Bhisho residents give up on BCM

Group quit ‘fruitless’ task team established to sort out issues after protest

Bhisho residents have withdrawn from a task team established to stabilise the area and resolve issues that gave rise to the #totalshutdown movement in April.

The Bhisho Rates and Service Payers Association announced on Tuesday that it had had enough of Buffalo City Metro’s “lies” since the task team was established a month ago.

On April 29, Bhisho residents blockaded exits in Bhisho, bringing the town

Among the residents’ demands were calls for a cleaner environment, a reduction in electricity and water rates, the state of drinking water to be improved, and infrastructure issues to be addressed.

Residents said they had an agreement with BCM to visit Port Elizabeth and Durban to research the difference in electricity costs between Bhisho and those cities.

The task team included Monde Sotana, the deputy director of service delivery monitoring in the premier’s office.

Sotana, a mediator between BCM and the residents, could not be reached for comment on to a standstill. Wednesday. Onela Mangxola, spokesperson for the residents’ association, said the residents had decided to cut ties with the task team.

“This is due to unfruitful delay tactics by BCM, sabotaging our progress in reaching a solution for the [town] of Bhisho,” Mangxola said.

“We have observed with sadness that all the agreed changes to be implemented by BCM since March have not been productive.

“[In the planned] short- and long-term commitments, only two minor things have taken place from BCM’s end, namely the issuing of plastic bags, and grass cutting around the CBD.”

He said BCM had also flouted municipal regulations when it invited 13 wards to one venue to explain its integrated development plan (IDP).

He said residents of the respective wards did not have enough consultation time.

“This issue was raised with the mayor [Xola Pakati] and he publicly assured Bhisho residents the metro would assign representatives who would [visit], and five Bhisho residents would be given an opportunity to engage with the IDP before it was approved to be effective on July 1. However, that has never happened,” Mangxola said.

Pakati was shocked by the association’s decision to remove itself from the task team.

His spokesperson, Luzuko Buku, said: “We want to indicate that on May 21, the executive mayor met with the Bhisho Rates and Services Payers Association and there was a commitment regarding a process to be followed, which included a subsequent meeting that was scheduled for May 28.

“We received a verbal report that the meeting did sit and arrived at a decision to get the municipality’s [departments of] municipal services, planning and local economic development to present their plans for the development of Bhisho.

“We are in the process of arranging for the sitting of these meetings, and the ward councillor will also be present to address concerns.”

All the agreed changes to be made by BCM have not been productive