No jobs for Extension 24 residents

Extension 24 Electrification benefits councilor’s friends
By Joe & Tebogo
As indicated in our last article that the Matlosana municipality Mayor and the Office of the Speaker announced that electrification of extension 24 will commence on the 30th of May 2012. After massive demonstration with regard to the matter, residents of the area gathered on the 23rd of May to discuss jobs opportunities attached to the electrification project. Members of the community agreed that it was important that most of the beneficiaries must come from extension 24 and other sections of the ward must be part of the people to work in the project. Unfortunately electrification of 643 housing units is not good news to the job seekers of extension 24.
In the last issue of Lentswe (Local news paper publication) dated 31 May 2012 carried out the good news to the residents of extension 24 in Jouberton. It cited that at last the Matlosana municipality has appointed contractors who will electrify 643 houses in extension 24. This announcement was welcomed as it was long overdue; however the beneficiary community, the residents of extension 24, will not benefit in terms of jobs. About 80 job seekers who reside in the area demanded answers from the office of the speaker in the Matlosana municipality regarding the arrogance of ward 12 councilor Lulu Chao. The councilor is a hard nut to crack and mixes business with pleasure.
He cannot listen to the beneficiary community’s wishes regarding its poor people who need to be afforded job opportunities in this project; instead he is using this project to settle political scores. The councilor is abusing power and not taking cognizance of the municipality’s policy imperatives in terms of job opportunities when implementing municipal projects in communities. We have noticed his behavior in a number of meetings we have had as members of the community steering committee, where he indicated that he was elected the only councilor in the ward and there is no one that he is accountable to especially delegates from the community as he regard them as individuals.
He has apparently hired people particularly for this project behind curtains, where there were no procedures on that regard in terms of hiring. We guess friends, relatives; fellow comrades, township councilor protection unit (Thugs) and girlfriends are the workforce for this project because when we screen them none of the employed people are from extension 24. Community members engaged in series of meetings to amicably come to a common agreement and engaged the office of the speaker and the SAPS as they believe that issues related to service delivery can be resolved without violence and they all hit a brick wall and could not believe what they are hearing from him as the community is willing to work peacefully with him. According to him violence is the only solution to this problem because he is always in company of thugs and believes that he is untouchable. A lot is still to follow because residents demand justice and are not willing to back off.