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!Kheis Municipality has reintroduced refuse removal services in a number of neglected areas for the first time since before the 2021 Local Government Elections and can’t wait to start cleaning up its towns.

After a multi-party local government took over from the ANC-run municipality in September 2021, debt incurred during years of ANC financial mismanagement led to the Sheriff of the court attaching a number of municipal vehicles. This largely paralyzed service delivery, as the new multi-party government first had to address many inherited financial disasters.

After ongoing work to improve the poor financial state of the municipality, !Kheis secured a savings and wasted no time in procuring a refuse truck, as the resurrection of service delivery to residents is our priority.

After finalizing the licensing process, the refuse truck was able to make its debut in Grootdrink. It was a privilege to be able to participate in this long outstanding act of service to local residents, who have been deprived of services and forced to live amongst filth since before the 2021 elections.

Given that refuse removal services were only partly available in Groblershoop, we have a lot of catch-up work to do, especially in towns such as Grootdrink, Gariep, Opwag, Topline, Wegdraai, Sternham and Boegoeberg. Refuse removal in these towns will be done on a rotational basis.

Our long-term vision is to restore environmental health services in all our towns and the dignity of all our communities. This is one step in the right direction to restore a systematically broken municipality. We are also busy with plans to address the excessive illegal dumping taking place in our communities, especially of rubble.

It takes time to build functional towns and restore service delivery but slowly but surely, we are getting things done.

We encourage all residents to register to vote in 2024, so that they can help bring more of this service-orientated form of governance to more of the Northern Cape.

Issued by Rolf Christie, Cllr - DA Mayor of !Kheis municipality