THE first community hall for Ward 6 in Cradock was officially handed over to residents by councillors from the Inxuba Yethemba Municipality.
The building of the community hall is a municipal project which started in 2014. It was completed in March this year and handed over to the community on July 27.
The hall was built in response to a request from the residents who had no place to sit and discuss issues of their ward.
Before completion of the hall, they had to rely on tents, which were either too small or were not stable enough.
“I feel very proud today to be here and to be part of this prestigious handover of our community hall,” said councillor Cycelia Diamond.
The community hall can seat about 800 people. It has a kitchen, an office for the ward councillor and one for the CDW and a storeroom.
“We need to take ownership of this community hall as it is for us,” said one community member to everybody present. He also promised the mayor, councillors and management, that the hall would be taken care of by the community.
Executive Mayor, Ray Shweni, promised that he would make sure that a school was built for the children of ward 6 as they presently travel long distances to get an education.
Sonwabise Panziso, spokesperson for Inxuba Yethemba Municipality, said the municipality would like to thank the community for making the day such a great success and also expressed the wish that the community would take care of the hall. He thanked the sponsors who made the day a success.