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Sinkholes top the agenda at West Rand petitions hearing

Communities from around the West Rand District have asked the Gauteng Provincial Government to prioritize their safety as sinkholes are a growing concern.

The Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s Petitions Standing Committee (PSC) on Friday, March 10, visited the people of Merafong and surrounding areas to provide feedback on the petitions submitted by residents.

The hearing comes a few days after Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi spoke to the Merafong community regarding rampant sinkholes in the area, where he assured residents that the matter was top of the provincial governments priorities, along with other service delivery delays.

The Premier returned and attended the public hearings at the Carltonville Civic Centre in Merafong City, which are led by Honourable Ezra Letsoalo as Chairperson of the PSC.

Speaking to the community, Premier Lesufi said that after their recent visits to the area and doing assessments, he said that government must quickly to the growing sinkoles that have swallowed up properties and endangering lives.

“When we got to Khutsong, we were quite shocked that the situation is beyond what we thought it is. It is a situation that needs our urgent and immediate intervention,” he said.

Premier said as part of his State of the Province Address in February, the provincial government has decided to approach their national counterpart and have the entire Khutsong and surrounding areas as a National Disaster Site. They are yet to get feedback on the declaration by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Premier emphasized the need for urgent response to the sinkholes in Merafong.

The number of sinkholes in the West Rand District stands at approximately 1,195 and are growing due to high amounts of dolomite (a mineral in the soil) and the mining activity across the entire area.

“From the 20th (March), we are going to appoint on behalf of Merafong Municipality, all experts to assists to know whether there’s a sinkhole and will work at the Emergency Disaster Site,” said Lesufi.

The permanent Emergency Disaster Site will be fully equipped with medical personnel, search and rescue team, and will be first to respond to sinkhole-related emergencies. “We are establishing this on the 20th of March,” the Premier said.

Lesufi also explained that the first area of relocation will be houses, followed by schools and clinics. He said the relocation process must be finalized and must be moved with speed.

“As the provincial government, we are of the view that the issue of sinkholes in Khutsong, gives us an opportunity to restart Khutsong afresh and bring services that were not present before,” said the Premier.

He made the big announcement that Gauteng is building and 800 MW Solar Farm in Khutsong and surrounding area to address the power crisis in the country and provide electricity to the area and the province as a whole.

“It will be built here in Merafong and it will use local business people and it must hire local people as part of re-engineering the economy of the West Rand,” said Lesufi.

The premier said the solar farm will unlock employment opportunities in solar installation, solar chargers for electric vehicles and more.

“Even though the urgency is sinkholes, we want to revitalize, re-energize and restart Khutsong so it can be the new economic hub of Gauteng. People of Khutsong/Merafong are not a step-child of Gauteng, they are part of Gauteng and they must get all the services we give our residents,” said Lesufi.

The PSC has complimented the interventions that the provincial government wants to implement. They have requested that mining institutions get involved as part of the solution.

“Whilst some sinkholes occur natural, the other contributing feature to it is mining activity that continues and it destabilizes the underlying bedrock. At some point, there must be a meeting between the provincial government and mining houses,” said chairperson Letsoalo.

The hearing also gave residents were invited to discuss various service delivery related challenges in their communities. This was also an opportunity for some to talk to the premier and address their grievances.

Mzwandile from Khutsong, a representative of ‘Khutsong Lives Matter’ spoke passionately about the various incidents where people have fallen into sinkholes and subsequently getting little assistance from the municipality to affected victims.

Mrs Radebe from Ward 6 lamented that she and her community have been living without electricity for the past two years, saying that she is willing to pay for electricity only if her prepaid meter box was working.

“Our boxes are not working and the councillor wants R500 so that I can have electricity. Our circumstances are not the same for others in the area,” she said.

After the community engagements, the hearings got underway and a total of eight petitions were submitted to the provincial legislature.

Ezra Letsoalo, chairperson of the Petitions Standing Committee (PSC) in the Gauteng Legislature talks to the people in attendance at the Carltonville Multipurpose Centre.

As part of our democratic processes, the Gauteng Legislature has a mandate to encourage and involve citizens of the province to participate in their activities. One of these ways is Petitions which are written requests or complaints made by a member(s) of the public to the GPL on policies or service delivery related matters.

The PSC is tasked with considering all admissible petitions lodged with the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and works with departments or department entities and the municipalities in the Province of Gauteng to address the complaint or request.

The PSC invited Head of Departments (HoDs) from the affected departments to provide detailed feedback on the petitions submitted by the residents of West Rand.

A total of eight petitions that were selected and discussed from the large pool of West Rand petitions currently sitting on the Committee’s petitions desk – most of which are from the area of Khutsong.

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