29 Nov 2022

Thirty-five North East District schools have been identified for the first phase of mother tongue implementation in January.The district’s council chairperson, Mr Farai Bonyongo told a meeting on Monday that the targeted languages were iKalanga, iSindebele and iSishona.

  He urged parents to cooperate with schools for a smooth take-off of the initiative.

On land issues, the chairperson said Tati Land Board had so far allocated 3 513 residential plots out of the 6 511 target set for this financial year.

Mr Bonyongo said a total of 623 plots were to be allocated by end of next month comprising 201 for Masingwaneng and the rest for Matenge.

He disclosed that the land board was currently in discussions with Tati Siding, Moroka, Mabudzane, Masunga, Ramokgwebana and Mulambakwena property owners in an effort to acquire a total of 170 hectares.

“So far assessment has been done for 19.6 hectares of land,” said Mr Bonyongo, who is the councillor for Nlaphwane/Mapoka.

He said the board was still awaiting compensation funds for the acquisition of 22.39 hectares in Moroka, Ramokgwebana and Tshesebe last financial year.

Mr Bonyongo informed his audience that the board, in collaboration with council extension officers, had so far registered 25 855 applications for Secure Land Title.

He complained that the number of applications was far below the expected 50 653 as per Land Administration Process Capacity and Systems surveyed plots statistics.

On health issues, Mr Bonyongo said the district had registered less than 10 cases of diarrhoea among children.

Decrying the drug shortage problem in the district, he however said government was doing everything possible to address the situation.

Updating council on road infrastructure, Councillor Bonyongo  said the district continued to undertake development as well as maintenance projects. 

Councillors heard that construction of the Tshesebe-Masunga Road was at 47 per cent while road maintenance was ongoing at Shashebridge and Mambo.

 A tender for paving of roads in Ramokgwebana failed due to non-compliance by bidders and had to be re-tendered, he said.

Councillors stated that while progress  on many projects was satisfactory, a lot still needed to be done, especially with regard to roads, which suffered set-backs due to the current torrential rains. ENDS