A MUNICIPAL Demarcation Board (MDB) public consultative meeting almost degenerated into chaos in Mbombela yesterday when a disgruntled group barged in with a loudspeaker and briefly disrupted the programme.
The group, which identified itself as the Umjindi Community Forum, is against a proposed merger of Mbombela and Umjindi local municipalities as announced by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Pravin Gordhan earlier this year.
Mbombela and Umjindi are two of 10 municipalities with boundaries Gordhan requested the MDB should review to limit the number of "non-viable" municipalities by merging them with other municipalities to form new entities.
The proposed mergers have received a largely negative response in several parts of Mpumalanga so far, with Umjindi going as far as staging a short-lived, violent protest following Cogta's announcement of the plans earlier this year.
Yesterday, the MDB battled to calm the Umjindi Community Forum as the statutory body tried to stress the point that the merger was not a done deal, hence the public meeting convened to collect public opinion on the matter before a final decision is made.
"The very purpose of coming here today was to get a feeling of whether people support the proposal to amalgamate Umjindi and Mbombela or not. You're never going to get people to agree, so we need to test the proposal on the ground," MDB board member Shivon Wiggins said.
"We need to see if there's support for it and if there isn't support, what are the views of the people? We took notes of everything, we will consider it and we will be looking at a feasibility study that will also help with the technical aspects of whether or not the amalgamation makes sense."
People for and against the proposal were given a platform to state their cases, with the former group citing Mbombela's stronger economy and better job opportunities as reasons why the merger should go through. The group against the proposal listed Mbombela's alleged administrative weaknesses and corruption as reasons why the two municipalities should be left independent of each other.
The Umjindi Community Forum threatened to turn their town, Barberton, into "another Malamulele, Khutsong and Balfour" should their wishes be ignored.
mazibilas@sowetan.co.za
Threats over merger
A MUNICIPAL Demarcation Board (MDB) public consultative meeting almost degenerated into chaos in Mbombela yesterday when a disgruntled group barged in with a loudspeaker and briefly disrupted the programme.
The group, which identified itself as the Umjindi Community Forum, is against a proposed merger of Mbombela and Umjindi local municipalities as announced by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Pravin Gordhan earlier this year.
Mbombela and Umjindi are two of 10 municipalities with boundaries Gordhan requested the MDB should review to limit the number of "non-viable" municipalities by merging them with other municipalities to form new entities.
The proposed mergers have received a largely negative response in several parts of Mpumalanga so far, with Umjindi going as far as staging a short-lived, violent protest following Cogta's announcement of the plans earlier this year.
Yesterday, the MDB battled to calm the Umjindi Community Forum as the statutory body tried to stress the point that the merger was not a done deal, hence the public meeting convened to collect public opinion on the matter before a final decision is made.
"The very purpose of coming here today was to get a feeling of whether people support the proposal to amalgamate Umjindi and Mbombela or not. You're never going to get people to agree, so we need to test the proposal on the ground," MDB board member Shivon Wiggins said.
"We need to see if there's support for it and if there isn't support, what are the views of the people? We took notes of everything, we will consider it and we will be looking at a feasibility study that will also help with the technical aspects of whether or not the amalgamation makes sense."
People for and against the proposal were given a platform to state their cases, with the former group citing Mbombela's stronger economy and better job opportunities as reasons why the merger should go through. The group against the proposal listed Mbombela's alleged administrative weaknesses and corruption as reasons why the two municipalities should be left independent of each other.
The Umjindi Community Forum threatened to turn their town, Barberton, into "another Malamulele, Khutsong and Balfour" should their wishes be ignored.
mazibilas@sowetan.co.za
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