Council to be held accountable

DENEYSVILLE – A war over residents’ access to the Vaal Dam continues unabated.
Residents are especially alarmed by the presence of a caravan resort with mushrooming and allegedly illegal structures around the dam.
The ‘illegal’ structures have been going up below the waterline around the dam with impunity for years.
Now the dam-access residents have always enjoyed is menaced by building extensions, more and more allegedly ‘permanent’ occupants consuming electricity from a common source, and at least one road closure.
Community spokesperson Linda Fletcher reports that Metsimaholo has for months been called on to enforce municipal legislation by the Deneysville community.
Referring to a road closure, residents ask how a business can have exclusive rights of what they have always thought of as a public area. Did Metsimaholo give permission?
Metsimaholo spokesperson Dr Ginio Alberts has urged residents to refrain from illegal action as council is doing everything in its power to resolve the controversy that swirls around the damside resort.
On-site meetings have included representatives of the Metsimaholo departments of Electricity, Urban Planning, the provincial Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWAS) and Councillor Johan Geyser, as well as numerous residents.
The most recent on-site meeting was between the new owner of the resort – Philip Malan – DWAS and Metsimaholo.
Tshitereke Masheheleni of Metsimaholo UIrban Planning said he would discuss the issue with the communications department of Council.
Residents will then be updated early this week.