General News

Since the beginning of this year, the Executive Mayor of Rustenburg, Councillor Mpho Khunou has been crisscrossing the Rustenburg with his unannounced visits to numerous areas where service delivery has had unrelenting bottlenecks, to the detriment of the community.

Previously, the Mayor accompanied by the Municipal Manager Mr. Victor Sello Makona, the Council’s Speaker and Single Whip – Councillors Shiela Mabale-Huma, Levy Mokwele and various members of the Mayoral Committee, have been to the City Centre, Tlhabane, Zinniaville, Karlien Park, Protea Park, Modikwe, Makolokwe and Bethanie among other areas.

Mayor Khunou had made a commitment to go to the grassroots to be able to gain better insight into the challenges faced by communities and to make follow-up visits to ensure that where challenges persisted, the responsible Directorates would take appropriate remedial actions.

The City’s first resident led an oversight visit to numerous projects which were funded in accelerating service delivery, in line with the Council adopted integrated development plan and said, the only way to ensure service delivery was a reality is to take stock of the situation on the ground “we cannot always rely on reports by senior managers and officials, as such to ensure that residents receive the service which they pay for, we need to physical verification and satisfy ourselves, lest we be found to have been irresponsible with the tax-payers money” Mayor Khunou said.

The visits, commenced at the Municipal Main Stores, which is a facility used by the RLM to procure all the critical infrastructure and components for the electrical, water and sanitation units, which are more often faced with increased number of reported complaints on a daily basis.

The visit to the stores, was to ascertain stock levels, for the three units, as previously shortage of supplied material stocks had resulted in prolonged inconveniences on the side of the residents, while the turnaround time for responding and resolving reported complaints was compromised, thus causing backlogs.

The entourage proceeded to Tlhabane which in recent months has been experiencing water supply challenges, following an earlier bulk water reticulation project which left under a thousand household disconnected from the older water supply network. Most of the households which were not able to access water have been put back onto the network as the appointed service providers continue to finish off the project.

In Tlhabane West, the City’s pump station located in the suburb was inspected, where has commenced on increasing the pumping capacity to ensure that residents in highlying areas have access to water, during period of unplanned and planned water supply interruptions. Currently when the reservoirs have low water levels, residents in the areas are unable to access water due to poor pressure in the system, which requires water cuts for increasing capacity and subsequent water flow to the area.

During this leg of the visit various Members of the Mayoral Committee were in attendance, such as MMC for Roads and Transport – Councillor Lucky Kgaladi, MMC for Technical and Infrastructure Services – Councillor Michael Mhlungu, MMC for Corporate Support Services – Councillor Joyce Mashishi-Ntsime and MMC for Budget and Treasury Office – Councillor Basebi Lekoro.

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The public is hereby advised to exercise extreme caution, on a resurgence of a job scam being associated with the Rustenburg Local Municipality. In this recent scam there is an individual calling himself Mr. Mohlala posing as an HR Coordinator of the Rustenburg Local Municipality.

In a text message sent to persons who have not applied for any advertised vacancy of Admin Clerk for interviews scheduled for 24th May 2021. The said individual also requests unsuspecting members to confirm their attendance for the interviews by calling 078 068 4229 where job seekers, will required to pay R 5500.00 to secure employment with the Rustenburg Local Municipality.

The Municipality does not make use of any employment agencies and or Human Resources agents for purposes of recruitment. It is not the RLM’s policy nor a requirement for any prospective employees to make deposits prior to a confirmation of employment at the Municipality. The Human Resources department will invite interviewees by way of telephone, and or e-mail, on a municipal domain @rustenburg.gov.za bearing the coat of arms. We appeal to the community of Rustenburg to be extra vigilant including calling the Human Resources department on 014 590 3989, to verify the authenticity of the invitations or by visiting the Municipality’s HR department, 5th floor at Missionary Mpheni House.

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Extension of The Objection Period

Residents are hereby advised that the Rustenburg Local Municipality has extended the objection period in respect to the valuation roll to 15th June 2021. This is to allow residents who will receive their section 49 letters late an opportunity to lodge objections if they have any.

Residents are also reminded that should property owners who would not have received the section 49 letters (letter informing residents about their property valuation) by 30th April 2021, are encouraged to contact the municipality to obtain a copy.

Copies can be obtained through one of the following methods:

Visit the following office:

Municipal main building (Missionary Mpheni House)
Corner Dr Beyers Naude and Nelson Mandela Drive
1st floor office 127

Send requests by email to the following details:

Thabiso Mkhwanazi – tmkhwanazi@rustenburg.gov.za
Busisiwe Faku – bfaku@rustenburg.gov.za
Masechaba Motene – objections@rustenburg.gov.za

Alternatively call 014 590 3283/3113/3163/3476 during office hours Monday to Friday from 07:30 am to 4:00 pm.

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On August 6^th 2019 Rustenburg Mayor Councillor Mpho Khunou and property mogul Mr. Roux Shabangu of JB Holdings, in the presence of other co-investing property development companies -Twin City and Moolman Group presided over a sod-turning ceremony in an open veld outside the City Centre. The intimate ceremony marked the beginning of a journey of what was to was bring life to Rustenburg’s local economy falling the downward trajectory of the City’s economy following the Marikana massacre. The aftershocks of the violent clashes spilled over into various sectors of the economy which led to job cuts in the mining sector in the region of 10 000. Subsequently many players in the private sector, disinvested in Rustenburg fearing a contracting economic base.

Over a year and half later, Rustenburg’s first resident expressed how proud he was of what the Council he has been at the helm of had achieved, in-line with the City’s long term strategy of transforming Rustenburg. He said many of the City’s detractors were convinced that the Rustenburg Mall, would never be a reality “I am proud of the work we have done as a Council, the road has been very long as this vision started in the early 2000’s. We had endless obstacles, it did not look like we will achieve this, but the belief of the private sector into our vision, has birthed this beautiful facility. We have no doubt of the relationship we have formed and look forward to growing Rustenburg with you” Mayor Khunou said. Council had embarked on a spatial land management use strategy as part of creating an integrated and interdependent service offering to communities in 2003, when the Executive Mayor was then Rustenburg’s Municipal Manager. The process which was tedious, which included in interested parties presenting before the City Council on how the portion of land would be used, to achieve the City’s strategies of spatial planning while promoting economic growth. Further, the proposal for the use of the land had to be subjected to public participation where the community had to make inputs and representations, if a project of this magnitude should proceed. The City says, it important for the community and the private sector to continue in jointly working together to ensure that socio-economic challenges which are currently prevalent are mitigated, primarily through investment and creation of direct and indirect jobs, which lead to the economy of Rustenburg.

Despite the challenges which were prevalent between the City and the property developers over the use of local content, over 80 percent of the work force including subcontracting opportunities were afforded the community of Rustenburg. Shabangu, CEO of JB Holdings said, despite the initial teething problems he is delighted that the development gave the people of Rustenburg an opportunity to become participants in the project “we are grateful that we were able to create jobs within the community in which we are situated and also afford the local SMME’s a chance to gain more experience” Shabangu emphasized. The facility which will open its doors officially tomorrow for trading features 120 stores, and the size of 8 soccer fields and was constructed at a cost of over 600 hundred million.

The Mayor also thanked the Member of the Mayoral Committee on Local Economic Development – Councillor Ofentse Kombe, Council’s Single Whip – Councillor Levy Mokwele as well as Councillors Latelang Nkgoang, Johan Cronje and Gert Du Plessis who are in charge of the hosting wards in the jurisdiction of the mall project. They had been participants in the established steering committee which was intended to safe guard the interest of the community while ensuring creation of opportunities for local empowerment. In attendance at the official launch was the Acting Municipal Manager Mr. Edward Komane and Council Speaker Councillor Sheila Mabale-Huma.

The event was also graced by dignitaries such as Prince Zulu of the Zulu Royal House in Kwa Zulu Natal and leader of the IPHC His Grace TS Modise.

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The Rustenburg Local Municipality, continues to ensure that services are rendered to residents in cost-effective and efficient manner, as outlined in the strategic priority which focuses on sound financial management while promoting good governance principles. The economic down-turn which has led to a technical-recession has not spared the residents from the consequences of a tougher economic times. Most of whom, have lost their primary sources of income. The impact of the national lockdown cannot be ignored, as many businesses could not operate at their full capacity, and others could not survive beyond lockdown, thus having to lay off employees. The financial position of the municipality made it impossible to offer any form of relief to the ratepayers, and the debtors’ book continued to grow.

The Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 requires that the municipality have effective revenue collection systems as consistent with section 95 of the Municipal Systems Act and the municipality’s Debt Collection and Credit Control Policy.  Subsequently, the City Council resolved in line with item 62 of the 30^th March 2021 meeting that the Municipality may, in order to encourage prompt payment by customers and/or to reward regular payments made by customers or payments made by any of the existing means to pay any outstanding balance through an arrangement for the purpose of paying off of debt in instalments which are available in law, including those provisions in section 103 of the Systems Act, and section 71 of National Credit Act – NCA.

Council after taking into account, the effects of a contracting economy and its consequences on households, resolved to extend the debt collection incentives scheme by 6 months commencing 30th March 2021. The incentives program offers clients the opportunity to have their arrangements calculated in line with the Credit Control and Debt Collection policy with interest removed from the calculation and written off when clients have kept to the arrangement.

For more information, residents can contact the following persons:

bmaubane@rustenburg.gov.za or 014 590 3420 gphalane@rustenburg.gov.za or 014 590 3595 kmoetapele@rustenburg.gov.za 014 590 3426 or at offices 22 – 28^th ground floor Missionary Mpheni House.

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