Ditsobotla residents react to Ramaphosa’s SONA

File image| Ditsobotla Municipality head office building.

Residents of the Lichtenburg-based Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West have mixed reactions to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA).

Ditsobotla is one of the municipalities struggling to deliver basic services such as water and sanitation.

Ramaphosa warned local authorities who neglected their responsibility to deliver basic services to communities that they faced serious consequences.

One of the residents, Dikeledi Bogonyediwa, has welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement that national government will hold under-performing municipalities accountable.

“The intervention that was sent by the President, we, the community of Ditsobotla we would like to see the intervention committee to interact with the community regarding the service delivery because our problem in Ditsobotla is electricity. Our electricity is not even safe to ourselves, even to the people who are working with it.”

Another resident, Eric Chweneyagae, believes the focus should be on developing infrastructure, especially roads.

“In the speech that the President has said now, I did not hear the president mentioning the roads and whereby in the North West province, we are having the challenges of the roads. For example, the municipality we are in now, we are experiencing the problem of roads, electricity, water. And that is why companies like Clover just went out of town. So the economy of the town doesn’t grow.”

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