By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
President Jacob Zuma has kept his word and followed up complaints about services in Balfour, Mpumalanga, by dispatching a senior minister to meet the community.
The Minister in the Presidency responsible for performance monitoring and evaluation, Collins Chabane, was expected to visit Siyathemba township, the scene of violent protests two months ago, to attend to residents' grievances today.
Chabane was to meet the community members and hold discussions with councillors.
His visit comes in the wake of Zuma's surprise trip a month ago when he found the mayor had left his office to go home early. Zuma met the community and promised to delegate ministers and officials to attend to their complaints as soon as possible.
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"President Zuma promised the people of Balfour that he would send ministers to deal with the issues that they had raised, relating to inadequate, or lack of, service delivery in areas of health, education, home affairs, social development, human settlements and others," the government said in a statement released at the weekend.
"A team of ministers has been meeting to deal with the issues and to work out mechanisms of bringing services to the area," the statement added.
Soon after the Zuma administration took office, service protests broke out across the country with residents accusing councillors of failing in their duties. During the protests, communities vented their anger by destroying property in municipalities in Thokoza, Gauteng, Piet Retief, Standerton, Balfour and Khayelitsha.
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This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on September 07, 2009
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