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Municipality to take over township services

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This is to ensure that the municipality is not placed at any disadvantage in delivering services to all its citizens in the area.

A COLLABORATION agreement has been reached between Richtersveld Municipality and Alexkor to ensure a smooth transition of services to the local authority.

In 2007, the community of Richtersveld filed a land restitution claim regarding the Alexander Bay Township, which led to a Deed of Settlement that was made an order of the Land Claims Court.

The court ordered that the area needs to be declared a township and that infrastructure needs to be upgraded.

In 2012, Alexkor upgraded the infrastructure and the Minister of Co-operative Governance accordingly proclaimed the township and the municipality will now be able to take over the services.

The municipality and Alexkor entered into an agreement which will see a transitional arrangement of a 36-month handover between the parties. This is to ensure that the municipality is not placed at any disadvantage in delivering services to all its citizens in the area.

This transitional agreement will give the municipality the opportunity to understand the extent and costing involved in the services, the opportunity to conduct consultations with the public and to engage relevant stakeholders towards registering the area as a mining town.

President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a District Co-ordination Model, and as a way of implementation, it was agreed that the Namakwa District Municipality will play a central role in giving direction to the parties.

The director-general in the Office of the Premier, Justice Bekebeke, established a steering committee which will gauge progress on the matter.

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