UNITED Democratic Movement leader, Bantu Holomisa, has dismissed talk of King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) Local Municipality becoming a metropolitan municipality in 2026, saying the municipality was far from ready for the transition.
Holomisa made the remarks while leading hundreds of party supporters during a march to KSD municipal offices last week, March 17, to lament service delivery challenges.
The KSD municipality has submitted a formal application to the Municipal Demarcation Board to be granted metropolitan city status in 2026.
“If they want a metropolitan city here they must demonstrate by making sure that the budget the municipality gets from the central government is spent efficiently through the cleanliness of the city and better roads,” Holomisa said when asked for his opinion on the application by KSD municipality to be granted metropolitan city status.
Holomisa says the ANC-led government has been rejected by voters in the metropolitan cities it used to govern across the country, and their attempt to create another metro in KSD was “a big NO”.
The UDM’s march to KSD municipal offices raised a series of service delivery grievances, including unstable electricity supply, lack of water and sanitation, poor roads infrastructure and the high rate of serious crimes within the KSD municipality, and the OR Tambo District.
On electricity, the party said that residents who get electricity from the KSD municipality have been experiencing loadshedding long before it was formally introduced due to unexplained electricity outages that still exist today.
The UDM further called on government to attend to lack of water and poor sanitation in rural areas under the OR Tambo District Municipality.
The party also called for police officers to be deployed to patrol rural areas where serious crimes such as murders and stock theft were a daily occurrence.
It also decried the deteriorating state of Mthatha and its infrastructure, saying that the city used to be the glory of the former Transkei homeland under Holomisa’s leadership.
The UDM has demanded that its petition of grievances be forwarded to the provincial and national government, while also calling for immediate response to their grievances.
