MAHIKENG MAIL - MAHIKENG - Will the long wait come to an end for the North West Provincial Government to officially hand over the Taung Skull Heritage site to the residents of Taung?
This question comes after the recent claims by the MEC for Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism, Bitsa Lenkopane, claimed the restoration project was 90% complete and would soon to be handed over to the local community.
However, the MEC’s statement did little to convince the residents, who saw it as an insult - as it was pretty evident that much work still needed to be done to complete the multimillion development project that started in 2014 and was meant to restore the hidden gem in the form of the 2.5-million-years old human skull discovered in 1924 in Buxton Village.
The Taung Heritage site product development (worth over R300 million) was set to develop and upgrade the site, and was expected to be the new global tourist destination market for job creation, economic development and uplifting the living conditions for the poor in and around Taung.
Despite certain portions of the project having been completed, the community expressed doubt that the facility “was ready to host tourists” as several sectional developments are still incomplete.
A former employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, expressed dissatisfaction, outlining that a full investigation was needed to be conducted in order to probe the whole Taung Skull Heritage site refurbishment project.
“As one of the first people who hired in this project, it has left us heartbroken, as it was our only hope to rise from the poverty we have been living in for years. But what we saw was corruption and people helping themselves to things that were meant to develop the project.
“That is why we are here today with an incomplete project while money was spent. Our community has been divided by this thing, because we have never been given full reports on how much was spent and on what. We all know that this is a big project with millions of rands involved in it.
“We as the residents of Taung, particularly us who live in Buxton, demand full accountability, because we are not benefitting, except with temporary jobs, while companies coming from outside benefit,” said the former employee.
At the time of going to press (Wednesday), it was expected that Kgosi Lecugile Lekwene would have answered questions posed by Mahikeng Mail about what his understanding was about the project, but to no avail. Meanwhile, residents were still waiting for the project to be handed over to them.
Millions of rands have already been spent on the project while the skull remains in the hands of Wits University researchers.
It is no secret that the Taung Skull has been and continues to be a burning issue between Taung residents and the provincial government for the Lazarus Mokgosi administration to officially open the heritage site for use and to create employment for the residents.
