Vuwani - Vuwani residents, who rejected peace deal signed this week, on Friday insist that they would boycott the upcoming 2016 Local Government Elections.
On Thursday, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des Van Rooyen and eight traditional leaders signed a deal aimed at ending the shut down in Vuwani and surrounding areas.
Community leader Nsovo Sambo said the trust between government and community has been broken before negotiations started and the only way it could be restored is if government responds to their demands.
Residents are demanding that their area should not form part of the new municipality arguing that they were not consulted by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB).
Earlier, the African National Congress (ANC) in the province urged the community to take the matter to court if they were not satisfied by the MDB process claiming it does not have say over municipal demarcation.
However, after the residents took to the streets and the ANC sent members to the area in a bid to calm residents after more than 24 schools were torched.
Sambo said the lingering trust was conceived when politicians urged them to accept and be part of a municipality but they were not consulted when it was planned.
He said when ANC leaders told them that it won’t bow down to their demands and the burning and destruction of government property would not help. They said even if the community burns down the whole village nothing will change.
But government committed that the demands of Vuwani’s residents would be heard 14 days after elections are over.
During the peace deal signing, one of traditional leaders indicated that their communities “are not too confident about the process” that they were involved in.
Police presence was high in the streets of Vuwani in the build up to the August 3 elections.
About 14 wards may not participate in the upcoming election if violence reigns in the area.
For the new entity with a total of 27 wards if election collapse it could trigger constitutional crisis.
Sambo said they are not retreating election will continue without their marks on ballot.
“Our standpoint has not change, we are not going to vote, traditional leaders sign on their own, our campaign will continue,” said Sambo.
The community believes that their traditional leaders betrayed them by signing a deal they did not bless.
The shut down is expected to end on Thursday.
Sambo said on Thursday they will go to the schools and clean up so that children can return to clean classrooms.
There was no schooling in the area for more than three months due to shutdown.
African News Agency