Mogalakwena municipal backlog

MOGALAKWENA – Ratepayers who were affected by the municipal strike are relieved after Mayor Parks Sebatjane announced that workers reported for duty last week Thursday. Residents, however, demand to know what the municipality’s action plan is to catch up with the five-week backlog.
Service delivery at the Mogalakwena Municipality was resumed after David van Rooyen, minister of corporative governance human settlement and traditional affairs (Coghsta), intervened to end the crippling five week strike.
Mogalakwena faced persistent challenges following municipal workers going on strike over "inadequate benchmarking of salaries compared to similar-sized municipalities".
The duration of the strike caused lots of frustration for residents. Many are refusing to pay for services that were not rendered during the strike. “We now have to face endless queues at the municipality and who knows what more is to come?” one such a ratepayer told Northern News on Monday. Queues at the traffic department at the municipality were described as a nightmare and one high school learner complained that his drivers' license should have been issued a month ago.
A resident of Kameeldoringpark approached Northern News and expressed her concern about a water leak she claims to have reported to the municipality in December. Workers unsuccessfully attempted to fix the leak, but  thousands of liters of water are being wasted,” she said.
Sebatjane apologised to the community unreservedly about the non-delivery of services and said in a media statement that the municipality will try to ensure that it finds a long-term solution to avoid similar situations in the near future.
“The municipal executive management will prioritise essential services in an effort to restore services.
“We commit to ensure that the municipality learns from this episode and puts in place a firm basis for sustainable, quality and effective governance and administration informed by the back to basics principles," Sebatjane added.