Naledi manager ignores AfriForum offer – Stella still short on water
The residents of Stella are heavily burdened under water shortages due to a faulty transformer that caused water pumps to malfunction. The AfriForum branch in Vryburg, which includes Stella, offered to carry the cost of repairs. Tshepo Bloom, Municipal Manager of the Naledi Local Municipality, is however ignoring this offer.
AfriForum wrote to Bloom to assist his municipality with the repairs of the transformer, seeing as the Naledi Local Municipality does not have the necessary funds. The condition was that the municipality compensate AfriForum at a later stage, as the maintenance of these water pumps remains the duty of the municipality. Bloom was requested to write a letter to the AfriForum branch – as protection against legal implications – in which he gives the branch permission to make the repairs, but the letter has still not been received. The branch management is also struggling to get hold of Bloom at all.
“It is clear that Bloom does not have our residents’ interests at heart. His attitude towards AfriForum is markedly negative since his appointment as Municipal Manager, which also damaged AfriForum’s relationship with the Naledi Local Municipality. The residents of Stella and Vryburg are now paying the price for it because they are not receiving any service delivery. Bloom recently left a meeting with AfriForum midway because he didn’t want to allow them to record their conversations for minute and record purposes. He also did not show up for subsequent meetings,” says Alta Pretorius, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for Stellaland.
“The AfriForum branch in Vryburg continues to support the community of Stella themselves so that these residents can at least get sufficient access to water. AfriForum and the community will have to stand together and look after their own needs until Bloom and the Naledi Local Municipality starts to honour their responsibility,” Pretorius concludes.
SMS “Vryburg” to 45350 (R1) to join your nearest AfriForum branch.
