No decision was reached about the future of Merafong at a meeting between an African National Congress (ANC) delegation and the Merafong Demarcation Forum on Wednesday.
Merafong was incorporated into North West from Gauteng after cross-border municipalities were abolished in 2006, causing conflict and unrest.
On Wednesday, a group of youths pelted the police with stones after the talks. Police fired rubber bullets to diffuse the situation.
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday issues discussed at the meeting would be taken to the ANC national executive committee (NEC) and within two weeks the delegation would come back to report on the decisions of the NEC.
”We have started a political process to address the issues in Merafong,” he said.
Mantashe said the ANC delegation and the Merafong forum had agreed on a number of issues, but that they were unable to disclose which issues were agreed upon.
Asked whether Merafong would be transferred to Gauteng, he said he could not pre-empt the decisions of the NEC.
The delegation, led by Mantashe and including Jesse Duarte, Billy Masetlha, Siphiwe Nyanda and Fikile Mbalula, met the forum to discuss issues raised by residents in a memorandum submitted to the ANC earlier this month.
Mantashe said relevant ministries would be engaged in addressing problems in Merafong.
Giving feedback to the community, spokesperson for the Merafong Demarcation Forum Jomo Mogale said for the first time they had met people who were prepared to listen to them and understood their problems.
”There is a light [at the end of] the tunnel,” he said to a ululating crowd. ”We are going to Gauteng.”
Mogale, who was dismissed from his job as a teacher after he was found guilty of misconduct, said the ANC was ”dealing with the dismissal politically”.
”It is well known that I was fired for raising the demarcation issue.”
He said the incorporation had brought problems to Merafong, because local taxis were not able to transport people as their registration numbers did correspond with licence discs.
”Taxis have a North West registration number and a Gauteng licence disc,” he said.
District secretary of the South African Communist Party in the area Douglas Gininda said the delegation understood the issues raised and that had given them hope that the demarcation problem would be solved.
Residents have objected to the transfer of Merafong from ”wealthy Gauteng to poorer North West”.
Residents embarked on a number of protests including the disruption of schools, petrol-bombing the homes of ANC candidates, blocking roads and the destruction of municipal properties.
They also boycotted the 2006 municipal elections that saw only 130 people casting votes.
Residents applied to the Constitutional Court asking the court to declare that the Gauteng provincial legislature failed to comply with its constitutional obligation to facilitate public involvement during the process of change in provincial borders that led to Merafong becoming part of North West.
The Constitutional Court dismissed the application, saying it was a political matter that needed to be addressed by politicians.
In a memorandum submitted to the ANC headquarters, the Merafong Demarcation Forum called on the ANC to instruct Parliament to convene and resolve the demarcation issue in Merafong before the end of July. — Sapa