MEDIA STATEMENT: COMMITTEE DISCUSSES MARIKANA INFORMAL SETTLEMENT PETITION WITH NORTH WEST GOVERNMENT AND JB MARKS LOCAL MUNICIPALITY

The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs today met with the representatives of the community of Marikana Informal Settlement, JB Marks Local Municipality and the North West Provincial Government’s Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA) to discuss a petition sent by the Marikana community to the Speaker of the National Assembly (NA).

In the petition, which the Speaker referred to the committee, the community of Marikana asked the NA to investigate the failure of the local and provincial governments to provide services to the residents of the informal settlement. JB Marks Local Municipality told the committee that the matter of the Marikana petition was considered by the municipal council and plans to upgrade the settlement and provide all necessary services have been approved.

A study by the Council for Geoscience has revealed that some parts of the settlement are dolomitic, and only the non-dolomitic part will be developed. The Municipal Manager of the JB Marks Municipality, Mr Kgomotso Kumbe, told the committee that the tender has been advertised for town planning services. He took responsibility for the municipality’s failure to provide basic services such as communal taps, basic sanitation and refuse removal.

The provincial department of COGHSTA’s Mr Energy Manaka said the department concurred with the municipality’s plans and will provide all the necessary support for the establishment of a formal township in the Marikana settlement.

The committee was not convinced, however, with the responses and questioned why it has taken such a long time even when the Human Rights Commission reported that the community’s human rights were being violated by government failure to provide basic services.

The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Fikile Xasa, said there was no effort on the part of the municipality and provincial government to prepare responses for the committee meeting. “One strong message that must be sent to both the municipal council and the provincial department is that a letter called a petition is usually a very serious letter to the highest authority, in this case, it was the Speaker of the NA who referred it to us. This should have demanded a serious response to the contents of the petition – one couldn’t notice that there was any effort,” said Mr Xasa.

The committee suggested that there needs to be a meeting to talk about the Marikana petition by all executives – the municipal council, provincial government, and national government and that the matter must be taken seriously. Mr Xasa also announced that the committee has resolved to give the municipality and the provincial government fourteen days within which to provide an action plan to respond to the Marikana petition.

Source: Parliament of South Africa