Soil of Africa civic movements members photos by Dimakatso Modipa
By Bongani Ramontja
National chairperson of Soil of Africa
Soil of Africa (SOA) in Tshwane is disappointed and concerned that the budget speech by the Deputy Mayor did not address the most compelling and crucial issues faced by the residents, such as those of plot 61 Smith.
For too long this community has been without adequate and critical services which include electricity, water and sanitation.
The Budget speech said nothing about this community and many other communities alike who are still lacking access to basic and crucial adequate services, yet the Deputy Mayor claims to have delivered a fully funded budget.
The Deputy Mayor in his Budget Speech claims to be committed to consistant and reliable service delivery but still failed to put forward a budget and due date on when will a total none service delivery for this community be resolved.
He also dismally failed to address the difficulties faced by People Living with Disability.
Them being excluded from every opportunity starting from housing, job opportunities as well as business opportunities and developments especially tendering.
To date, there has been practically nothing given or done for People Living with Disability and with uttermost disappointment neither did the budget speech address their needs.
As Soil of Africa we believe that the budget speech should have allocated at minimum seven percent of their SMME and youth development budget specifically to People Living with Disability, and so should it be regarding job opportunities, tenders and housing.
The Deputy Mayor just like his predecessors have no regard for People Living with Disability, unless on election nearing period where they will even visit their homes to rip their vote.
Soil of Africa is calling upon the Mayoral Committee and the entire council to put the budget where their mouth is!