Boots on Tar Before Sunrise: MEC Dikgerekgere Takes Operation Tsoga Moshomi to Malamulele’s Flood-Scarred Roads
- Mpho Dube
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief, The Azanian
Truth. Fearless. Unfiltered.
Malamulele started working before the sun cleared the mountains. So did MEC for Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure Tonny Rachoene.
At first light this morning, Rachoene arrived at the Malamulele Cost Centre for Operation Tsoga Moshomi, the 7th Administration’s programme to professionalise the public service through punctuality, discipline and workplace ethics.
There were no ribbon cuttings and no podiums. There were road workers, damaged surfaces, and a departmental head who chose to start the week where the problems are.
Operation Tsoga Moshomi means Wake Up, Worker. In Malamulele it meant the MEC standing with grading crews and maintenance teams who are restoring access to villages cut off by floods. Heavy rains washed away sections of road, forcing taxis onto unsafe detours, delaying patients travelling to clinics, and costing farmers hours they could not afford. Rachoene joined the teams assessing culverts, marking sections for urgent patching, and fast-tracking gravel work to reconnect communities.
He is known as MEC Dikgerekgere following his initiative to revitalize roads
across the Limpopo province. So far, the Dikgerekgere Wednesdays have made a mark across all Limpopo districts, blading, gravelling and debushing various gravel roads to make life for residents easier and accessible.
The name began as an initiative. It became a reputation. When communities hear Dikgerekgere is coming, they expect graders, gravel and results before the week ends. Today he brought that same energy to a Monday.
This is the standard the 7th Administration has set for itself, and Rachoene is becoming its clearest example. Young, energetic and hands-on, he has built a reputation as a trailblazer who treats public office as a worksite, not a waiting room.
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He is the MEC for Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure, and he is also ANC Limpopo Spokesperson and Head of Communication, tasked with explaining government to the people in real time. Recently elected to the ANC Limpopo Provincial Executive Committee, he brings to the PEC the same ethic he brings to a cost centre: arrive early, know the detail, deliver.
Rachoene’s path to this moment matters. He is the former ANC Youth League Limpopo provincial chairperson, part of a generation of leaders who were told they would inherit the state and decided instead to repair it. That background shows in his method. He listens to workers, he reads the terrain, and he measures success in kilometres of usable road rather than columns of correspondence.
His work has drawn recognition from the ANC presidency, with senior leaders commending his contribution to the turnaround of Public Works in Limpopo. The commendation is not for speeches. It is for visibility, accountability and delivery in a portfolio where citizens feel failure immediately. When a bridge approach washes away, a mother cannot get to the clinic. When a road crew is late, a learner is late. Rachoene’s Operation Tsoga Moshomi insists that the state’s clock must match the people’s needs.
In Malamulele today, that insistence was practical. Supervisors reported on plant availability before 07:00. Teams were dispatched with clear instructions and material allocations. Rachoene moved between sites, checking drainage points that caused the flood damage and ensuring that repair work does not simply restore the road to the condition that failed. The instruction was simple: build back better, because the next rain is not a surprise.
Residents who spoke to The Azanian described a change in tone. “We are used to seeing officials in offices,” said a community member from Xikundu. “Today we saw MEC Dikgerekgere on the road with the workers. That tells us our problem is serious to government.” A grader operator at the cost centre put it differently: “When the MEC knows the name of the road and the name of the machine, you work differently. You work like it matters.”
That is what a model politician looks like in practice. Rachoene combines political communication with technical oversight, and he is judged by both. As ANC Limpopo Spokesperson he articulates policy. As MEC he implements it. As a PEC member he must align the two so that the movement’s promises are met by the state’s performance.
Operation Tsoga Moshomi is where those roles meet. It is the Dikgerekgere ethic applied to a Monday shift register. It is Stakeholder Tuesdays held on the shoulder of a road with the stakeholders who hold shovels.
The 7th Administration’s promise is A Limpopo That Works For All. Roads are the first test of that promise. They carry teachers to schools, nurses to clinics, produce to markets, and workers to jobs. When floods break that chain, the economy stalls in villages long before it shows in provincial data. Rachoene’s response in Malamulele is to shorten the distance between breakdown and repair. It is to make the state’s reaction time a source of confidence rather than complaint.
Leadership of this kind is not accidental. It is cultivated. From the ANC Youth League chair to the PEC, Rachoene has moved through structures that demand discipline and reward results. The ANC presidency’s commendation of his work in Public Works reflects a broader point: the renewal of the organisation will be measured by the renewal of basic services. Malamulele does not need ideology to get to the hospital. It needs a road. Today it saw MEC Dikgerekgere who understands that.
There is still work to do. Flood damage across the province is extensive and budgets are finite. But the principle has been set at the Malamulele Cost Centre this morning. Show up on time. Know the problem by name. Leave the site better than you found it. Repeat tomorrow.
Lee Kuan Yew once argued that a country is built in the details: drains that work, roads that hold, officials who answer the phone. Mandela reminded us that it always seems impossible until it is done. Between those two truths is the space where Tonny Rachoene works. He is young, but he is not waiting to lead. He is leading by being early, being present, and being accountable.
Operation Tsoga Moshomi will move to the next cost centre this week. The standard it leaves behind in Malamulele is clear. The public service wakes up with the people it serves. The MEC sets the alarm. And when the province calls him MEC Dikgerekgere, it is not a nickname for show. It is a record of work done.
That is how you build A Limpopo That Works For All. One road, one morning, one trailblazer at a time.
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