Official Newsletter for FBDM • Issue 28, June 2014 Message from the Executive Mayor INSIDE THIS ISSUE Greetings to you, all the lovely residents of our district can indeed the beautiful Frances Baard district. This say theirs is a better Foreword by the quarter marks one the best highlights of my area to live in than 1 Executive Mayor tenure as both a councillor and Executive it was 20 years ago. Mayor in the district municipality. What On 7 May 2014, the From the Municipal makes this quarter to stand out is the people of this district, Manager’s Desk 2 fact that we concluded one of the most together with all Koopmansfontein fulfilling projects we have ever undertaken South Africans, went community receives as a municipality, the Koopmansfontein to the polls to elect the The Executive Mayor long awaited title township establishment project. 5th democratically Ms Khadi Moloi 3 elected national and deeds The late eighties saw a massive disinvestment provincial governments. The elections went in railway as a means of transport in South 2014/15 financial year ahead without any reported incidents of crime 4 Africa. This resulted in many “railway budget related to the elections in our district. For that station towns” such as Koopmansfontein I would like to thank all political parties that turning into ghost towns, forcing its people to Groundwater source participated, as well as the SAPS, IEC and all found for Ganspan 5 migrate to neighbouring towns and cities due other stakeholders for their effort in ensuring to economic pressure. Instead of allowing peaceful elections. Tourism Indaba 2014 6 Koopmansfontein to suffer the same fate as other former “railway station towns”, the On 16 June 2014 our district hosted the New refuse truck Frances Baard District Municipality took it national Youth Day celebrations to mark the improves service upon itself to revitalise Koopmansfontein 38th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising. delivery 8 and turn it into a formal township, leveraging The event was a success and was honoured by Repair and resealing on the economic “spill-over” effects of the the presence of the Deputy President of the of streets in Warrenton 9 R31 road passing through the area. country, the Honourable Cyril Ramaphosa, proving once more that ours is a district of As the country celebrates 20 years of successes. Improving air and democracy, the people of this small town in atmospheric quality 10 13th Diamonds & Dorings Music Festival 11 National Headlines 12 The residents at Koopmansfontein receive the title deeds to their houses after years of delays and challenges with the transfers. Re bua mmogo - We talk together Read more onPage PAGE 1 3 From the Municipal Koopmansfontein community Manager’s Desk receives long awaited title deeds he third and fourth quarter of any in that area. The Frances Baard On 2 May 2014 the district Tfinancial year represent two of the District Municipality has procured busiest quarters in our municipality. and delivered a refuse truck for the municipality handed This is the period when we take stock Dikgatlong Local Municipality and over title deeds to the of all the projects we have identified started the process of developing for the financial year to determine a spatial development framework 37 households living at progress and to take corrective steps (SDF). Koopmansfontein. The to fast track those that are lagging The municipality hosted a very behind. It is during this period when successful air quality workshop in hand-over concluded a the Council adopts and publishes an effort to contribute towards the process which had lasted the municipality’s annual report for improvement of air and atmospheric the previous financial year, as is quality in the district, the event was almost 10 years. legislatively required. We also review attended by experts from across the The process to purchase our IDP, adopt the municipality’s five- country, they spent two days sharing Koopmansfontein from Transnet year strategic plan and draft the budget best practices and discussing latest started back in 2002 when the for the following financial year. trends in the environmental health district municipality first engaged the It gives me great pleasure to highlight fraternity. The FBDM took part in company. It lead to a long drawn out that the Frances Baard District the 36th annual international tourism negotiations with many challenges. Municipality has fulfilled all its indaba held at the ICC in Durban, we The district municipality felt that legislative mandates as far the above procured a stand and used it to display the households at Koopmansfontein processes be concerned. We have and profile the district’s tourism needed to be provided with basic adopted and published the annual offerings to potential national and services. Koopmansfontein fell under report for 2012/13 before 31 March international clients. the direct jurisdiction of the district 2014 the IDP has been reviewed and In the 2014/15 financial year, the municipality and the municipality adopted by the Council before 31 May municipality has allocated an amount made it an objective to ensure that the 2014. After painstakingly following of R20 million for capital projects living conditions of these families be the municipality’s budget process at our local municipalities and an improved. plan the Council finally approved the additional R10 million for operations budget for the 2014/15 financial year. The process of acquiring and maintenance. I wish to thank all officials and the Koopmansfontein kicked off when Council for the hard work we have put We view communicating with our a social compact agreement was into achieving all of this. communities, in whatever form, as an signed between Transnet Housing important element of good governance the district municipality and the In as far as fast tracking the projects and one of the most critical principles Koopmansfontein Transnet Housing for the 2013/14 is concerned we of ‘batho pele’. That is why we take tenants. The following year a sale have managed to successfully time to put together this newsletter agreement was signed between the complete most of the projects we to communicate our activities in the district municipality and Transnet. had planned to implement in our municipality. local municipalities for this financial The sale agreement came with many year. The municipality has purchased I hope you enjoy reading this edition issues that had to be completed before and delivered two sanitation trucks of our newsletter. the land could be registered in the for Phokwane local municipality, name of the municipality. completed the electrification of This included ministerial approval 35 households in Bonita Park and for the sale, which was only finalised completed a successful hydrological in the 2004/2005 financial year. study in Ganspan with a view to The transfer of the lease agreement upgrading the bulk water storage and of tenants had to be finalised and establishing a groundwater scheme in this included consultation with the order to address the water shortages Municipal Manager tenants by Transnet and the district Ms Mamikie Bogatsu municipality. Page 2 Re bua mmogo - We talk together Koopmansfontein community receives long awaited title deeds Transnet also made the commitment to write off all arrears subject to the termination of the lease agreements. In 2007, Transnet finally informed the district municipality that all documents for the transfer of the Koopmansfontein Township had been signed and was ready to be sent to the attorneys for registration. Unfortunately this was not the end of the process as the notification came with more conditions before registration could be completed. The district municipality had to ensure the following: • A fence had to be erected on the surveyed boundaries to prevent crossing of the railway lines and for the safety of the residents; • All necessary servitudes had to be registered such as the road through the disposed property to the buildings and service road Mrs Elizabeth Leeuw, an elderly resident who was too frail to attend the hand over ceremony was visited by the executive mayor, Ms Khadi Moloi (right), the speaker against the railway line and the entire ,Mr Brummer Maribe and the chairperson of the Finance Committee, Mr Willie underground infrastructure, which included Johnson (far left). certain electrical, water and sewer servitudes registration; and submitted a business plan to the then Department of Arts • A new access road had to be constructed in front of the and Culture. houses adjacent to the railway lines Other projects implemented in Koopmansfontein and the Another condition was that an approved township layout DMA included: plan had to be developed. This delayed the transfer of the • The collection, removal and disposal of domestic land even further. It also had an impact on the erection of refuse in Koopmansfontein, from 01 August 2010 till the fence as the boundaries had to be identified through 30 June 2011. the layout plan. This led to the process being delayed yet • Renovation of houses in Koopmansfontein. again. • Construction of the access gravel road at The Surveyor-General finally surveyed the area in 2011 Koopmansfontein 350m x 6m wide. and approved the cadastral drawings. Attorneys were • Eight female persons who are members of the finally appointed and the transfer process commenced. Koopmansfontein Cooperative - training in bead and The district municipality also acquired land adjacent to the sewing work. residential area from a neighbouring farmer. The idea was • Farm dwellers sanitation programme in the DMA – to to develop a cemetery for the community. This was a long provide farm dweller households within the FB district drawn out process as well but in 2004, the municipality with access to basic sanitation facilities – prefabricated purchased the 24ha adjacent to the houses. Immediately UDS system – 118 Amalooloo UDS toilets constructed the process was started to have 1ha of the land rezoned on 30 farms.