There are still some farmers in the suburbs of Utrecht, in the Madlangeni Municipality, who are accused of delaying the development of the community by blocking the areas even though there are partners with the government to rescue the communities.
This emerged when the Mayor of Madlangeni, Mr. Lawrence Buthelezi, presented the budget of R139 million for the financial year 2026/2027.
Buthelezi said that some farmers are making it difficult for the municipality to be able to properly deliver needs to farm communities such as electricity, roads and so on.
“Some are working with the council because they are signing permits for our people to bring development to the farms but others are making it difficult, many programs are being delayed and the farm communities are lagging behind,” said Buthelezi.
Just to say this, some households were still getting electricity infrastructure in other areas including farms and rural areas.
Apart from that, this municipality was in the crisis of Christmas, when the sky hit and destroyed houses and infrastructure.
Many people are left without roads and electricity.
Buthelezi was presenting the plans that have been completed, and said that this allocation will focus on meeting the needs of the communities and those left over from last year’s allocation.
This speech brought hope back to the residents of this area as about 20 houses were left to collapse.
Buthelezi announced that the disaster caused damage estimated at R10 million as the roads were washed away, electricity, houses and so on were damaged.
Buthelezi and his team of councillors, including his Deputy, Mr Jabulani Khumalo, started by visiting the Chanceni area, where the community received electricity for the first time.
Mr. Elpheus Sondezi (73) said that since he came to this place in 1969, he is seeing electricity for the first time in his life. This means that he is still 57 years old, living in this place without electricity.
He went on to say that even his children had that bad luck, but what makes him happy is that he is out of the trouble of lighting candles and expensive paraffin.
“The good thing is that my grandchildren will not light candles again, we will live by buying a card and if there is no electricity, we have a solar that lights up with the sun. It will always be light here at home and the children can do their school work without any problem,” said Sondezi.