The youth of Moretele on Monday closed out the workers of Moretele Local Municipality and refused to let any workers in.
The youth of Moretele gathered from 05:00 in the morning outside of Moretele Municipality to hand over their memorandum of grievances to the Mayor of Moretele, Mr Andries Makinta Monaheng, which was received by Moretele Municipal Manger, Mr Maroga, on behalf of the Mayor as the Mayor was not available.
The community complained about nepotism, tenders from Moretele Municipality being given to Limpopo companies, corruption and demanded free bursaries.
The chairperson of Villages, Townships and Small Dorpies (VTSD), Ms Winnie Sono, said one of the key issues was tenders from Moretele Municipality which is in the North West, being given to businesses in Limpopo.
“We are here as VTSD to give support to the youth as one of their grievances include business, and we are in business, because we want our mayor to stop giving tenders from Moretele to businesses in Limpopo.
Katlego Seemise who is a regional coordinator of Bojanala at VTSD accused the mayor of not supporting the objectives of VTSD.
“As the regional coordinator of Bojanala, we are here to support businesses of Moretele. We want the business people of Moretele to benefit in their territory and at the end of this week, all the business people of Limpopo should leave Moretele.
“The security services of Rechile cannot come to work in Moretele as a whole while there are security companies in Moretele,” she said.
In the memorandum, the youth demanded the implementation of a youth desk within the municipality as a matter of urgency so that the youth of Moretele can have access to the latest structure of the youth council.
They demanded the implementation of Moretele Wi-Fi so that young people can have access to internet and be able to apply to further their studies in institutions of higher learning, job opportunities and do research.
The demands included that all bursaries, internships and learnerships be communicated to the secretary of the youth council and that the 52 bursaries which will be two per ward, be implemented as soon as next year.
The convenor of the march, Mr Anthony Gigaba, said the office of local economic development should start engaging with National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and SETA to offer business assistance to the people in Moretele.
A 15% stake in each and every project should be directed to the youth in business as it’s a matter of compliance.
Radical Economic Transformation should be implemented in the municipality as a matter of urgency and as a matter of compliance, the 30% business that must remain in Moretele must remain within the local business people and be monitored.
Mr Gigaba said all request for quotations and tenders (RFQs)should be communicated to the secretary of the youth council, and secretary of VTSD chamber of commerce and that all contractors of outsiders should not be renewed.
“The economy of Moretele should be monitored and the local businesses should benefit from projects that are being implemented in Moretele and all outside companies that wish to do business in Moretele should joint venture with local businesses,” said Mr Gigaba.
One of the residents who did not want to be named said the community was tired of nepotism happening within the municipality.
“We are tired of job opportunities and bursaries being given to people who are close to the officials,” said the resident.
The Municipality was given 24 hours to respond and until then the Moretele Local Municipality continues being closed.
