All members of the Stellenbosch public can currently participate in meetings that will determine the planning of developments within the Stellenbosch Municipality for the next financial year.
This is according to Stuart Grobbelaar, spokesperson for Stellenbosch Municipality. The public participation period for the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the 2023/24 financial year ends on 28 September, according to the municipality’s website.
It is important for all affected parties to be involved in the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) process, according to Stuart Grobbelaar, spokesperson for Stellenbosch Municipality. “If something is not in the IDP, the key planning and strategic document of the municipality, we cannot budget for it,” he explained. PHOTO: Aiden Louw
“The IDP coordinates the municipality’s budgeting and decision-making in order to raise the standard of living for the local community,” explained Grobbelaar.
Members of the community can table the development issues that will be discussed at the IDP meeting, he said.
Interest in the IDP
“Our people don’t know the importance of the IDP meetings,” claimed Elliot Mbikwana, Klapmuts resident and the chairperson of the Klapmuts Development Forum.
Mbikwana claimed that he has never missed an IDP meeting but that members of the Klapmuts community are not given sufficient background as to what the meetings are about.
Members of the Stellenbosch public can either join the Integrated Development Plan meetings via a Microsoft Teams link to an online meeting, or they may attend a venue closest to their place of residence. This is according to the Stellenbosch Municipality’s website. PHOTO: Aiden Louw
“I think a lot of people just don’t care [about the meetings] and a lot of people don’t know the whole process,” claimed Janine Myburgh, a resident of Pniel. She added that the municipality could do more to advertise the meetings.
Issues to be tabled
Pniel’s electricity supply is the most important issue to be tabled at the meetings, according to Myburgh.
“We don’t just have regular loadshedding; we have longer hours and then there’s cables that burn and then there’s cable theft,” explained Myburgh.
Myburgh would also table the beautifying of Pniel streets in the meeting, she stated.
Mbikwana would like to table a youth centre and a swimming pool for Klapmuts, he stated.
“We want to see one day our Klapmuts children have a swimming pool here, because we also have incidents of our children drowning in the nearby farm dams,” claimed Mbikwana.
While previous IDP meetings have manifested in improved roads and taxi ranks in Klapmuts, Mbikwana said that the municipality does not always adequately consult with the community ahead of developments in the area.
He claimed that the business hub in Klapmuts was poorly placed, and said that this was an example of the results of inadequate consultation. Community members want to have the hub moved to a more central business area, he said.
The Integrated Development Plan meetings will be held in different venues in Stellenbosch, according to Stellenbosch Municipality’s website. “During these meetings, members of the community also suggest projects and initiatives to improve job creation and how the municipality can improve the living conditions of residents,” said Stuart Grobbelaar, spokesperson for Stellenbosch Municipality. PHOTO: Sourced/Stellenbosch Municipality