Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Sesotho soundbites by Cllr Stone Makhema.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has conducted a business survey in Metsimaholo to assess the quality of municipal service delivery. We have written to the Municipal Manager, requesting an urgent response from the Council on how the situation will be corrected.
Without decisive intervention, local businesses will continue to struggle, which in turn threatens jobs, investment opportunities, and much-needed municipal revenue.
We believe that reliable services are the foundation for attracting investment and that growing businesses have the potential to create employment for residents and revenue for the municipality.
The survey conducted through a questionnaire and door-to-door at 76 businesses provided the following results:
- 80% of businesses felt that the roads are in a horrible state.
- 72% will not consider expanding their business or encourage others to invest in the area;
- 24% who indicated that they will consider had suggested that only when service delivery improves; and
- 68% have raised concerns about poor service on refuse removal, no streetlights, incorrect billing, inadequate response by the municipality to attend to emergency calls, and leaking water meters.
We are concerned about the effects of this report. It is also worrying that the Ha-Rabasotho area houses the Technical, Waste, Electrical, and Parks departmental yards, which daily pass the state of the roads. Yet, there is no direction from senior management to at least attend to what is close to their area of operation.
The above opinion is an indication that service delivery has reached a stage of collapse, and urgent action is needed to ensure that we retain and attract business through our service delivery efforts in these areas.