North West Premier Bushy Maape has assured traditional leaders that his administration will provide them with what they have asked for during former Deputy President, David Mabuza’s visit.
Traditional leaders are demanding improved stipend and vehicles among other benefits and Maape told the provincial House of Traditional Leaders and Khoi-San in Mahikeng yesterday that some issues require budgetary allocations.
“There are some issues that are implementable, like ensuring that we establish the council for initiations. We are in the process of doing that. The issue of traditional councils to be elected. We are in the process of doing that.
“Some issues may need budgetary allocations like when the traditional leaders say we must improve the conditions of service of those people who work in their offices. We will need to look into the budget and see how we can accommodate them.
“They say they need vehicles that can be used in the terrain where they live, and so we will need some money to do that. They say that their offices need to be renovated. So these ones will take time. But we are working on addressing all of them,” Maape said.
He also indicated that they are attending to cases of traditional disputes in the province.
“In the issue of traditional disputes in the province, we have a system where we interact with the Royal House. The Royal House is the final abettor in these matters.
“If the Royal House convenes and it decides that this is the rightful traditional leaders, then we implement. Sometimes the decision is challenged in court and the court makes a ruling. We implement the ruling of the court,” he said.
However, the chairperson for the North West House of Traditional Leaders and Khoi-San, Kgosi Thari Maotwe accused the provincial government of acting too slowly.
“We thought that by now we will be witnessing the full implementation of the responses from the provincial government. Out of the 100%, it is only 5% that we might say these progress in it in terms of responses up to now. We hope that soon we will be meeting with the MEC for the Department of Cooperative Governance who will respond to some of the challenges raised by the traditional leaders,” Maotwe said.
The traditional leaders are also demanding control of the land under the government.
