Vhembe District Municipality final completes Shigalo Fire Station
We did not want to leave it as a white elephant, says executive mayor Let us work together, executive mayor pleads on visit to Shigalo traditional council
Benson Ntlemo
Vhembe District Municipality in Limpopo has finally completed the Shigalo Fire Station that was completed in the past but then vandalized.
The facility is set to employ an unidentified number of people in the district.
In a visit to the Shigalo Traditional Council ‘to cement a relationship with the traditional hegemony”, Executive mayor Dowelani Nenguda spoke about the completion of the facility.
“We did not want to leave it as a white elephant but completed it so it would assist our people,” said Nenguda.
He was visiting the area against the backdrop of complaints by villagers who said they were being sidelined when it came to jobs particularly in the project that was built at Shigalo, the Shigalo Fire station.
Community members closed the road and protested that no one would work at the facility while they were sidelined.
A member of the royal family Cedrick Yingwani asked the executive mayor to consider locals when it came to employing people in the project.
“We know there are jobs requiring rare skills and we also understand that the facility, although based at Shigalo, is for the whole district,” he said.\
He said he was pleading that if there is a way locals should not be left behind.
Community leader Joe Chauke said it worried the community when the municipality officials went to work building the new facility without consulting the chief.
“There were also plans to officially open the facility without consulting the chief,” he said.
He said after their complaints, he was happy that the executive mayor finally came accompanied by Collins Chabane Local Municipality mayor Moses Maluleke.
The executive mayor apologized for a “breech of protocol.”
He said he respected traditional leaders.
He pledged to work hand in glove with the Traditional Council and local community structures to officially open the fire station.
He said for fear it could be vandalized again, they have deployed fire extinguishers from other stations to be station at the new facility until extinguishers to work at the new station would have been employed.
Concerning the question of employment, he advised local people to apply for all posts advertised at the municipality and not rely on one project.
To the local community leader Chauke and family representative Cedrick Yingwani, Nenguda said: “We have heard you.”
Hosi Shigalo real names Musa Maluleke thanked Nenguda and mayor Maluleke for coming to his area. “I was worried but not I am happy that we were able to fix what needed to be fixed,” he said.
