BY STAFF REPOTER
Moutse: Christopher Malope, a community leader at Dennilton in Moutse, says ethical leadership is needed to turn things around and deliver quality services to the community of the area. Malope will be contesting the 2021 Local Government Election in Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality Ward 9 as independent candidate. Malope promises people who will be voting for him a clean governance with quality services they are entitled to as South African residents. “I have positioned myself to introduce professionalism to fight cadre deployment and nepotism, which benefit individuals and causing backlog in the delivery of services in the community. A clean government is needed and this is what I am intending to achieve,” he said. Malope said he stepped out of the shadow of the ANC when realizing that after 27 years of democracy, people’s lives haven’t changed in Moutse. “Yes I was supporting the ruling party all along but not anymore. I am a community leader and against the organization that take decisions not made to benefit the majority, but for the benefit of the selected few. Community involvement is essential to tackle service delivery issues and needed to address residents’ challenges,” he said. According to Malope, the people are sick and tired to face a situation where basic services such as water and houses are not provided by the government they have voted for into power.
“The provision of water should be prioritized but as you can see, the infrastructure is down and the local and district municipalities can’t keep up to their promises,” he said. Malope said to tackle water crisis issues, a needed short term solution is the proper provision of water through water trucks and later the drilling of boreholes not more than 500 metres apart.
“Underprivileged residents should also get RDP houses as well. It seems like these houses benefit only those who are close to senior officials in government and not the poor,” he said. In terms of youth empowerment, the candidate said adoption of youth development programme is essential to equip young people with skills to fight unemployment and poverty. Malope said his campaign is in full swing in the ward and he has found ways of being visible and relevant to the public when garnering votes as an alternative from the failing ANC.
“A political shift and alternative to the failing government is needed for a change. People can’t just keep on voting without a better life that they are promised being materialized,” he said. Malope said he is supported by the local South African Communist Party (SACP), South African National Civic Organization (SANCO) and Congress of South African Teachers Union (COSATU).
