Since the last mayoral column, we have passed the new Integrated Development Plan and Annual Budget. These crucial documents, which will chart the way forward for our municipality, were approved unanimously by all 28 LIM 368 councillors and will be implemented from July 1st 2017.
The council has accepted a new name for the municipality: Modimolle-Mookgophong Local Municipality. There is still however an opportunity for members of the public to give alternative suggestions. An item will be prepared for the next ordinary council meeting regarding this.
LIM 368 is launching a new website which is currently in a trial phase. Comments or input from the public are welcome and indeed encouraged. It can be accessed on www.lim368.co.za.
After taking over the municipality I identified over 500 RDP housed in Mookgophong Township without basic water and sewerage services. I took up the matter with the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs and am pleased to announce that in this new financial year it will install water and sewerage connection to 533 RDP houses in the Mookgophong Township. A contractor has already been appointed and are busy with the planning phase. It is expected to be on site before end of July 2017.
The council has accepted more than 6000 new indigent registrations and the outstanding debt of all these accounts was cancelled. This is another example of how we keep our promises and provide an opportunity for people to start with a clean slate. We also amended the indigent qualification to R3500. Those who haven’t registered will have another opportunity from Monday 3 July until 30 September.
The re-construction of the R101 through Mookgophong is taking a bit longer than expected and according to the consulting engineer the project should now be completed by September 2017. We realise that residents may be getting impatient but it will be worth the wait with SANRAL doing its best to produce a top quality new road.
The LIM 368 municipality will soon launch a service delivery app for a 3 month trial period. The purpose of the app will be to log complaints and to get faster response times for municipal problems reported. If the trial goes according to plan this app will soon be available to all members of the LIM 368 residents.
As Mayor I would like to ensure residents that while many challenges lie ahead, the DA led council will continue to tackle every issue head on and will deliver clean, transparent and honest government. We do appreciate the patience shown by our communities and will do our best to launch short, medium and long term projects in the best interests of all our residents.