Chester Makana

Chester Makana

The portfolio committee on public participation has threatened to take disciplinary action against Musina municipality in Limpopo after its failure to appear before a hearing last week.

The Musina Concerned Group lodged a complaint with the Limpopo legislature over unsatisfactory service delivery.

The group claimed that municipal officials were engaged in corrupt activities.

It accused officials of maladministration, nepotism and corruption in the allocation of RDP houses to beneficiaries in the area.

The controversy stems from the allocation of RDP houses in the Mahlalang'kani area of the municipality.

The residents allege that RDP houses are sold to foreigners and relatives of officials.

The spokesman for the group, Collen Nematshivha, told the committee that certain members of the community owned RDP houses on paper but did not live in those houses.

"We are worried about the fact that they ignored the meeting," Nematshivha said."They have to account for what they did. We are tired of waiting."

But municipality spokesman Wilson Dzebu disputed the accusation that they had ignored the call by the committee and community.

He said the municipality had been informed late.

"We sent our lawyer to represent the municipality at the hearing," Dzebu said.

Committee chairman Mathews Malebana said they would summon the municipality to appear before the legislature for showing contempt of the committee's instruction.

He promised residents that the committee would seek documents on issues villagers raised during the hearing.

But residents said they had lost confidence in the government after a task team formed to investigate allegations of corruption and nepotism failed to report back to them in 2004.