A large number of people, mostly  members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), Cosatu and the SACP’s Alpheus Malivha branch, are demanding the immediate removal of three top officials of the Vhembe District Municipality.

Last Friday, nearly 5 000 people marched from the offices of Nehawu in Thohoyandou to the square at the Vhembe District Municipality, demanding the resignation of Executive Mayor Tshitereke Matibe, Chief Whip Tshifhiwa Dali and Speaker Mavuyisa Fungheni.

Speaker after speaker claimed that “their regime is characterized by maladministration, corruption and there is no clean audit  in the troubled Vhembe District”.

The chairperson of the SACP in Limpopo, Mr Teenage Monama, said people should fight corruption and maladministration in the municipalities at all cost. “Enough is enough for the regime of Mayor Matibe and his gang. If Matibe and his gang are not going, we will come and remove them by force and replace them with comrades ready to serve the people. We did it to former Premier Cassel Mathale and his cabinet after the province totally collapsed,” said Monama.

The angry group also handed over a memorandum to the Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA). The spokesperson for the SACP in Limpopo, Mr Matjike Thobejane, said that they demanded the application of Section 139 (1) (C) for the dissolution of the Vhembe District Municipality, resolution of workers' grievances and the provision of services for Vhembe's people.

“We have engaged with our communities, who are more worried about the manner in which employment creation and working class issues are treated by the Vhembe district. The biggest crime in human history was the non-payment of employees in January, and, hardly a month down the line, matters got worse. At the beginning of March, municipal property was attached and removed by the sheriff as a result of non-payment of debt. For years, the municipality has failed to absorb employees from the Department of Water Affairs and pay parity salaries to the transferred staff as per the transfer agreement,” said Thobejane.

They handed over these and other demands to the senior manager of COGHSTA in Vhembe, Ms Sengani Mabuda.

The executive mayor of the Vhembe District Municipality, Cllr Tshitereke Matibe, said he was aware of the march. "In our democratic country, everybody has the right to picket or to demonstrate. I was not aware that they were marching for the removal of mayor, Speaker and Chief Whip, because we are doing a good job for the communities we are serving. We have fought hard for this democracy to come to the people. The dissatisfied people must resolve the matter during negotiations, rather than marching to the municpal offices," said Matibe