KNYSNA NEWS - Protesters from wards 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8 who handed a memorandum of grievances to municipal leaders on Thursday 13 February, after marching in the town centre, are unhappy with some of the responses to their grievances that they received from the municipality.
One of their grievances was:
- The people of Sedgefield are asking for a high school in their area or a bus to transport the learners to school and back.
- The parents are unemployed and are currently paying R800.00, which they cannot afford. Education is the key to success."; and another was
- Casuals in different departments of Knysna municipality need to be employed."
Transport item
The organiser of the protest, Zwelethu Dyonta, a community leader in ward 8, said regarding the Sedgefield item, the municipality, via municipal manager Lulamile Mapholoba, "asked us, residents, to approach the local office of the Department of Education to request transportation of learners from Sedgefield to Knysna, and back".
The municipality should have tried to arrange transport for the learners on behalf of residents.
Municipal jobs
On the request to provide casual workers with municipal jobs, Dyonta said the municipality's response was that "hiring casuals is a temporary solution - but we need permanently employed workers to deal with service delivery issues in our community, the Greater Knysna community".
"There are not enough workers in our areas to deal with sewer and water problems," he said.
"We appreciate the MM (municipal manager) responding to us in this matter - it means he knows what he is doing. However, we are not 100% happy with his responses."
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