Community hands over new memorandum to Office of the Premier as it has “lost faith in the local authorities”
THE JAN Kempdorp community has given the Office of the Premier 14 days in which to respond to a new memorandum of grievances.
The memorandum was handed over to a representative from the Office of the Premier on Tuesday.
Thabang Molale, on behalf of the Jan Kempdorp community, said that the community wanted Premier Zamani Saul to accept the list of grievances as they had lost faith in the local authorities.
“The community will return to the streets to protest because we have been ignored for far too long and people are fed up,” said Molale.
The premier was unable to attend the meeting due to “long outstanding official obligations”.
The community started protesting in November last year over service delivery issues, unemployment and the “unfair” awarding of jobs on a local pothole repair project
The new list of concerns include dirty water, leaking sewage and a lack of transparency over projects, more especially two municipal projects that should have started at the beginning of the month but never materialised.
Other concerns include corruption emanating from the distribution of food parcels, the lack of community development and infrastructure in the town.
The community are also demanding jobs as well as the provision of bursaries for the youth and SMME funding for small businesses.
They have also complained that former convicts and criminals have been employed as security guards and that they were intimidating the community.
The spokesperson for the Office of the Premier, Bronwyn Thomas-Abrahams, said they had received the memorandum and would revert back to the community within the next 14 days.
She added that the premier had also requested that a meeting take place, together with the Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs and Sol Plaatje Municipality, to discuss an urgent letter that was sent by Eskom regarding threats of a bulk electricity disconnection in the Sol Plaatje municipal area due to non-payment.
