The North West Department of Cooperative Government, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs and other departments have started engagements to address service delivery issues in Ottosdal, Tswaing Local Municipality.
This follows after residents went in violent protests last week which led to the burning of a local library in Letsopa, municipal satellite offices, two municipal trucks, electrical repairs and waste removal and vandalizing the local police station and a police van.
They blamed the Mayor of Tswaing for not responding adequately to service delivery issues they had raised in a memorandum a month ago.
At a meeting on Friday with councilors, community leaders and the community, MEC for the Department of Cooperative Government, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs Mothibedi Kegakilwe mentioned his department will mobilise other relevant stakeholders such Eskom on issues of electricity, mining houses on their social labour plans as part of responding to issues contained in the memorandum.
The municipality is under Section 139 (1)(b) intervention and the team will work towards addressing other issues that affect the municipality. Other matters that have been raised with sector departments include the issue of the local clinic which does not open 24 hours a day, unavailability of recreational facilities, high crime rate and high level of unemployment etc.
He said the department will re-visit the allocation of housing units for Ottosdal and also allocate a sewer jet to Tswaing. Another meeting is scheduled for Tuesday to deal with amongst other things, water and sanitation.