Burgersfort is a Disaster. This town does not ignite a Spark.

Not long ago the Mayor of Greater Tubatse Fetakgomo local Municipality unveiled a multimillion rand budget during the municipality’s Integrated Development Programme (IDP). According to Councillor Johannes Phokane this budget is intended to accelerate service delivery to the citizens of the Municipality. The IDP’s total budget stood at a whooping R 600 Million and it has been more than six months since this massive budget was presented to the masses.

But until today communities have not heard nor know anything about the whereabouts of that budget. People don’t know whether the many promises made by the mayor at the event are being implemented or what? Because the town, Burgersfort is turning into rubble of mud and rocks, it is resembling a battered zombie. Under Greater Tubatse Fetakgomo local Municipality, Burgersfort is stagnant, roads are peeling off the ground, buildings are depilating and some are flung far apart from each other. The is not even a single branding of the town, but the municipality has a huge budget available. Burgersfort is serving more than 200 000 shoppers and visitors on a daily base, this people access the town via a small and depilating road. The road R37 is a single lane coming into town and until today it is still a single lane. They are properly maintained streets, actually the is only one street inside town that serves as both the main alternative road and a street for shoppers to access shops. This street was recently poorly upgraded to more than a million Rand, but today it is back to its disastrous state.

Why unveil such a huge budget and still fail to fix a simple town? How is the municipality going to be able deliver services to vulnerable communities if it fails to fix its back yard? This and many other questions that others like me may have remain unanswered till today because our municipality is unresponsive.  I understand that its not the local government’s responsibility to fix a national road, but its the municipality’s responsibility to fix all internal streets and infrastructure in town, so neglecting this is purely reckless and ignorant. Burgersfort has more than 20 active mines, 38 wards and a high level of commodity transit daily, this often lead to traffic congestion, especially during month end. So to allow it to depilate like this, so fast is not right. Burgersfort does not ignite a spark. Instead it is broken, falling apart and development has virtually taken a back sit. Communities are losing confidence in the municipality’s ability to deliver services.

Wards are broken down, councillors are no longer serving the communities that elected them, instead they have politicised everything. If you differ with them, they label you a rebel and overlook you and your entire household when providing services. Poor ordinary citizens remain hopeless and helpless, but the mayor unveiled a budget and still we don’t know how far they are in implementing the promises of the IDP\Budget. The political will of the masses that elected the current leadership has not been fulfilled, Greater Tubatse Fetakgomo Local Municipality’s Burgersfort with its 20 mines resemble one of those isolated Villages in Zimbabwe.  I don’t know what kind of contribution these 20 mines make in our town and villages because everything resembles a “Fuck up”.

The Mayor and his ExCo. must rise above pettiness and show some political maturity, begin this by implementing the promises of the IDP openly, fix the broken town and stop denying ordinary citizens the right to enjoy the fruits of democracy. Atleast in that way we will know that we have a functioning municipality with a dedicated leadership at its helm.

LET THEM HEAD TO SCHOOL, NOT A HOME.

 

LET THEM HEAD TO SCHOOL, NOT A HOME.

The number of homes headed by school going children (Child-headed) is at an alarmingly high now in our democratic dispensation than before. We continue to experience a low level of children going to school; instead they are looking after their parent’s homes, caring for their siblings, providing shelter and food. These children are denied the chance of experiencing the joys of being just a kid, play with kids his/her age and do things that normal kids are suppose to do. You would find them (kids) stuck between the walls of an impoverished home concerned about the health and safety of his/her siblings and not school books.

There are many factors at play which contribute to this but that is no excuse to deny a child his/her basic right to be educated.

 As a society we have accepted that as normal and allowed it to flourish without doing anything. Our communities are continually aware of that parent (Mother) who has since passed away leaving small children destitute. Or a neighbour who is a single parent working far from home and has left children with a reckless aunt or a drunkard uncle who are forever absent, yet they pretend as if its normal and acceptable. Our communities are often absent from key issues affecting child-headed homes and impoverished families because they say it’s none of their business. Failing to realise that it takes a village to raise a proper child. It is no wonder we have a high crime rate, young girls turning to prostitution and a teenage pregnancy that leave us tarnished. Not mention the school dropout that has turned our country into one of the highest illiterate nations in the world.

Let’s get our country, rural or urban going back to basics, where children remain children and adults doing adult work. Its time communities unite and rally support for those children whose parents have passed away, and chastise that reckless aunt or drunkard uncle for the wrong they’re doing. Going back to basic means elders recognise that every child in the community is theirs and make their wellbeing their concern. Going back to basics means allowing children to play without worry, while elders provide safety and security.

Let them head to school, not a home because they belong in class, studying and playing with peers their own age.  

LINK YOUR CAREER TO YOUR TALENTS.

“What do you want to be when you finish school?” I’m sure that everyone is familiar with this kind of question, because each of us has been asked or asked someone this question before and i believe it is still being tossed around. The question has been doing the rounds for decades and the answers continue to be varied and vaguer. What is the right answer to give when confronted with it? Why should it continue to be answered when so many young people are clueless and unable to give positive answers?

Many young people today are bombarded with so many career opportunities that choosing the right one for each individual has become a difficult task to execute. So what could be the solution to eliminate this confusion that continues to overshadow our young people? The answer is simple, according to recently released statistics by Foundation for education, on the right career choice, it was discovered that those who succeeded and excelled in their chosen careers are people who normally had the opportunity to first tap into their talents. It doesn’t help much to expose young people to career exhibitions if those careers do not link with their individual talents. Its important that we link our education system with the talents of our children, so that when time come for them to pursue a certain career path it won’t be a taunting task.

Talent is a gift that everyone is born with and to find yourself in an environment that encourages you to showcase that talent will lead to a right career choice. For example, many successful musicians and Actors tell us that, they discovered their gifts either in church or in school plays. They were mostly encouraged by their teachers or pastors, creating environment in which they can continue to flourish through showcasing that talent. With their passion and dedication, and the support from their teachers and pastors, today they are pursuing successful careers. Many young people, particularly in rural areas continue to make flopping career choices because their environments don’t encourage talents to flourish. Our young people find themselves in careers that bore them to death and this lead to unproductiveness. We have a lot of students dropping out of University because of wrong career choices.

Our education system needs to be fashioned in such a way that it leaves space for talent to play a role. In the talents of our young people lies the best and interesting career. Young people must not be fooled by money and toy around with their career life. You can’t choose to be an engineer when you are a talented writer or a Doctor when you are a talented cooker. No ways! Young people must be channelled to careers that resonate with their individual talents. This is where Educators, Pastors, Parents and Career Coaches should play a pivotal role to ensure that young people are exposed to their talents before exposing them to career exhibitions. This will help a lot with reducing university drop outs, unproductive workplace behaviour and the rate of unemployment.

I believe that talent powered by the right education will breed a successful career. A talent is a young person’s ticket to a healthy, happier, productive and long life.

Fikile Mbalula, Minister of Vulgar Language.

By now South Africans have a clear idea what kind of a leader Mr. Fikile Mbalula is and how desperate he has stooped to try to remain relevant among the nations. Mr. Mbalula, the Minister of Police continue to spit vile insults and vulgar language before the eyes of the citizens of this country with impunity and no one among his comrades in the ANC ever called him to order. Could it be that they are also afraid that they might be victims to his insults?

His only defence is that he is trying to be seen as the right man to lead the fight against crime. No doubt our country is experiencing an unprecedented crime outrage and the rate at which these criminals are mushrooming is alarming and scary. No longer have many ordinary South Africans (Grannies, Girls and Gays) feel safe in the comfort of their own homes. Statistics shows that we are a country with a high level of crimes like Murder, rape, high jacking and kidnapping. The numbers are stacked so high against us that we are the laughing stock of many African countries. Zimbabwe brag that, it only takes one police officer armed with only a knobkerrie and sjambok to control masses of protesters, while here at home it takes an army to control just a few protesters. Such derogatory spits do not argue well for a developed country like ours.

However this does not give the Minister of Police the right to go on our national televisions, radios and newspapers to spit such vulgar language in an attempt to scare these criminals into submission. And Minister Mbalula also must be made aware that pouring outrage on twitter does not bother any criminal because many of them don’t waste their times on twitter and facebook. I think Mr. Mbalula’s problem is trying very hard to be seen as radical and a tough fighter. He does this through impromptu press conferences, while neglecting to realise that, that is not entirely effective. I salute the Minister for springing up with crime fighting programmes, but i shiver at the names he attached to this programmes, naming a programme “Operation wanya tsotsi” is just pure vulgar and unlawful. Besides “tsotsi’s”are used to this words and they don’t scare them anymore. The Minister must also be aware that by sitting there and singing words like “Ba zo uqama ba uphuze” (They will urinate and drink it), crush their balls, no matter how sweet he try to sprinkle it with variety of explanations is just plain silly. Mr. Fikile Mbalula if he really want to fight crime, he must go to the ground, listen to the Policeman’s challenge with regard to underpayments and unfavourable working conditions, then improve them, engage unemployed youth and involve them in police fighting programmes because many of those criminals are themselves. Get a proper police commissioner and leave calling on criminal names to that commissioner.

Mr. Mbalula might mean well at his job, but we have enough insulters and vulgaras we just cannot afford one, especially a Minister who’s suppose to tread well and respect the people of this country. He mustn’t denigrate himself to such low level and bring this country into disrepute with vulgar language. If he can’t withstand speaking vulgar every time he opens his mouth, maybe he should consider letting his spokesperson do that talking. I’m sure the minister has so much work to do than do press conferences where he always had to explain himself because of what comes out of his mouth when he speak. Let Mr. Mbalula go to work, not explaining himself or conducting unending press conferences, no i mean real work of a Minister of Police.