READER LETTER | ANC has betrayed people of Giyani

ANC politicians have misgoverned the Giyani municipality for the longest time, collapsing systems that had been  running reasonably well in the past.

Despite all of that, 85% of residents of Greater Giyani once again gave the ANC a huge victory in the last local government elections. This is the same party that has put their lives in danger by downgrading the status of Nkhesani hospital to district level.  

We were told that this was done to save money.  What a lie! If it was about saving money, why is there  always a shortage of medicines, food and beddings? Major operations used to be performed at Nkhensani. Now Giyani residents must travel to  Mankweng and Letaba hospitals – 140km and 90km away from Giyani respectively – for life-saving procedures.

So far, the ANC has proved to be strong only in renaming existing structures, like the renaming of the Hudson Ntsan’wisi dam to Nsami dam for no reason. The dam was built by the former Gazankulu homeland under the leadership of Hudson Ntsan’wisi; why did the dam require a new name ?

Residents were never consulted about the renaming idea, and we kept quiet. We are treated like trash by the powers that be because we are too apologetic, as if we are foreigners in our own country. 

N’wabvenula Phangani, Giyani