By Nangamso Mabindla
2 November 2006

Buffalo City Mayor Zintle Peter, has invited members of the community to inform ward committees about how they should spend the money allocated for community development.

"We have just approved over R4,5-million [in funding], with each ward receiving R100 000. You need to sit down with your ward committees and talk about priorities in your area. We will then allocate funding according to your needs," said Peter.

She was speaking at the mayoral road show, which was in King William's Town this week. Accompanied by councillors and City officials, Peter addressed the communities of Mzitshana, Bulembu and Dimbaza, about 15 kilometres from King William's Town.

The City is to allocate money to enable ward committees to fulfill their functions. In addition, communication between the City and its 45 wards would improve, with the newly elected ward committees working closely with the communities on their needs.

Residents' concerns ranged from roads to electricity, water, employment, community halls and crime. In Mzitshana the residents said that their roads were in such a bad state that ambulances could not go into the village to pick up patients. Their main concern, however, was water.

"Here in wards 35 and 37 I know that you have a water problem," Peter said. "We did send our engineers to look at the problem, and they told us that there were many taps. In order for the water to flow smoothly we need to reduce the number of taps; it is better to have a few taps that work than have a lot of useless taps."

The City had already spent R1,9-million fixing water pipes to improve the quality of water in the municipal area. Looking at its efforts to develop some of its 250 rural areas, Peter said that the City, in partnership with Amathole District Municipality, had handed over a tractor to agriculture co-operatives.

The re-opening of the Bulembu airport outside King William's Town was going to make exporting goods easier for businesses. "When the airport was opened I was here and I was happy because I knew that it would open opportunities for employment for people living in these areas."

Some of these opportunities included opening restaurants, coffee shops, construction and other business ventures. Turning her attention to Dimbaza, where the main challenge was unemployment because of the closure of the factories in the area, Peter said the City still had that community in mind.

"It pains me to see that people are unemployed and we really are trying our best to bring businesses into this area and Fort Jackson in Mdantsane. We also want to build structures for small businesses to operate from."

Dimbaza also had tourism potential and the City, with the assistance of the provincial department of environmental affairs and tourism, was going to spend R9-million building the Dimbaza Wall of Fame and Garden of Remembrance.

"We are also building better houses, clinics and schools and installing electricity. But we can't do this without your guidance and I would like to encourage you to continue telling us your main concerns so that we can improve," Peter said.

The two-week long mayoral imbizo will end on Saturday, 11 November. It is aimed at providing a platform for residents to take part in developmental local government and to participate in the City Development Strategy, a 20-year vision to boost the Buffalo City economy.