Ndwedwe: The plight of the rural communities of Ndwedwe received a major boost this morning when KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka handed over a water tanker and a state-of-the-art fire fighting vehicle to assist this rural municipality in improving access to water for its residents and strengthening its disaster management capacity.
Hlomuka was joined by Mayor of the District Cllr S Gumede and Ndwedwe Mayor Cllr N Chili who welcomed this investment by the department into building capacity within the district which comprises some of the most rural municipalities in the province.
During the handover, Hlomuka stressed his department’s commitment to supporting municipalities in fulfilling their constitutional mandate of providing services to communities.
This rural municipality experienced a tragedy last year when five people died in a house fire in Mthebeni, Ward 11. The fire truck handed over by Hlomuka today will be a major boost to the municipality’s ability to respond to such incidents. “Today’s handover is a significant milestone in our efforts to improve the safety of our communities and speed up the response time by our fire and rescue teams whenever they are called upon,” said Hlomuka.
During the visit, Hlomuka also handed over a water tanker which is a short-term intervention by the department to alleviate the plight of rural communities within the municipality.
The truck is fully funded by Cogta and will serve areas within the Ndwedwe local municipality which is one of the areas that still fall behind in terms of water provision.