Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality

Mayor helps restore human dignity for disabled persons

The Mayor of Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality (EMLM), Cllr David Tladi, Exco Members, as well as Councillors handed out food parcels and provided other essentials such as wheelchairs to Tswelopele Disability Centre in Marapong village, Ward 08.

Speaking during the handover ceremony Honourable Mayor Tladi said government’s mandate is to ensure that it keeps up to its commitments of making sure that communities do feel being part of the entire society. “It is important that as government, we reach out to those communities who cannot provide for themselves and make a difference in their lives - and also our constitution protects people with disabilities and ensures that every citizen is treated equally,” added Mayor Tladi.

At his inaugural speech, after being elected Mayor of Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality on 22 November 2021, he stated, “As the Mayor I am committed to work as part of and with the executive committee, the municipal council and the administration and everyone else who is committed to working towards the realization of the ideas of our people.”

The Mayor made an undertaking then that as the new council, they would focus on basic services and core functions for the betterment of their communities, and the Municipality’s interventions at the Centre during Disabilities Month, is proof of that.

Mayor of Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality (EMLM), Cllr David Tladi

Dimakatso Ditshego, Founder and Project Manager of the Centre, expressed her gratitude for the donations and said, “I am so happy, I don’t even know what to say. When the Municipality said that they were coming, I couldn’t believe it. I can now see that changes are happening, and I can now see that more changes will still come.”

Ditshego said, “We hope this will change the lives of the beneficiaries as they will be able to move better. May this relationship continue for years to come while you also do this for others as well.”

Tswelopele Disability Centre was established on the 15th of February 2015 with fifteen (15) children living with

disabilitie. Currently the Centre is taking care of 48 people living with disabilities. The Mayor said that the Municipality would be working with provincial government departments to ensure that more work gets done at the Centre.

About Elias Motsoaledi

The municipality, formerly known as Greater Groblersdal Local Municipality, is named after Elias Motsoaledi, born on July 26, 1924, in Nebo, Sekhukhuneland.

Motsoaledi moved to Johannesburg at the age of 17 in search of work and played an active role in the establishment of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).

A lifelong member of the ANC and the SACP, he also played a central role in many campaigns, including the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the year in which he was banned. He was detained in terms of the 1960 State of Emergency and imprisoned for four months. On his release, he went underground and served on the Johannesburg Regional Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Arrested in 1963, Motsoaledi was one of the Rivonia Trialists and was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island, a sentence he served until his release in 1989, 26 years later. On his release, he was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC.

Motsoaledi passed away on the 09 May 1994, the day before the inauguration of the first Democratic President of South Africa, his fellow Rivonia Trialist and Robben Island Prisoner, Nelson Mandela.