Uitenhage and Despatch residents call for their own sub-council

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Residents of Uitenhage and Despatch were joined by several civil society organisations on Thursday in a march to the Uitenhage town hall where a petition was presented to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

About two bus loads of residents took part in the protest.

Their main grievance concerns the lack of investment and service delivery in the two areas, which were incorporated into the Metro Municipality, post 1994.

Simphiwe Madlavu of the SA Communist Party, says they're pushing for their own sub-council that will bring services closer to them as everything is centred in Port Elizabeth.

"We suggest that we have our own sub-council which will be formed by Despatch and Uitenhage as to bring those services closer to the people, so that we can have some some sort of governance on our own budget as to speed up service delivery." said Madlavu

The sub-regional Congress of the People, Sub Regional Chairperson Siphiwo Mangene added that not enough jobs have been created in the two areas.

"Uitenhage, Despatch and places like Rocklands and surrounding areas have been neglected in this metro. As COPE we don't see any jobs that have been created, especially around Uitenhage the statistics tell us that." said Mangene

The march was also supported by other organisations including NUMSA, COSATU and SANCO amongst others.

The muncipality is expected to respond to the petition within 14 days.