Free State municipalities are chronic to a gross violation of human rights, despite external remedial measures.
So says Dr Henk Boshoff, commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), who re-painted a bleak picture of the continued regression of 19 Free State municipalities during a media briefing about the inquiry into the state of service delivery within the province.
It was held on Thursday, 28 March, and presented the findings of the commission’s inquiry at the height of grave concerns of a myriad of service delivery complaints against the various municipalities in the province.
Submissions were not only from stakeholders representing various organisations, state and none-state institutions, but also individual community members and organised civil society given the platform and opportunity to raise their concerns.
Of the 19 Free State municipalities who the grievances were aimed at, only the Kopanong Municipality in the Xhariep district did not show up to present its side of the story.
Boshoff stated that the submission by residents, political parties, and community organisations tie in with the Auditor-General’s (AG) gloomy situation in relation to the audit outcomes of the municipalities in the province.
Testimonies were from the Office of the AG, the DA, EFF, various community representatives, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), as well as the Mohokare Municipality – also in the Xhariep district.
Boshoff said the various complaints were genuine.
The most highlighted complaint was the failure of the municipalities in providing their residents with proper water and housing, solutions to sewage spillages and sewage treatment challenges, alternatives for the non-collection of refuse, filling in of potholes on the roads, and a work-around for the persistent challenges of the bucket toilet system.
“This non-appearance is lamentable and concerning because municipalities as organs of the state have a constitutionally imposed duty to not only cooperate with the commission, but to also afford the commission the necessary assistance in the execution of the commission’s mandate.
“In these circumstances, the commission, guided by its enabling legislation, the South African Human Rights Commission Act 40 of 2013, will explore the next steps that it should take to deal with this defiant municipality,” confirmed Boshoff.
He said the DA’s lamentation that 11 municipalities in the province were dysfunctional, which affects their ability to deliver effective services, was extremely concerning.
Boshoff shared additional findings of the commission inquiry.
“Some municipalities struggle with huge Eskom debts. For instance, Maluti-A-Phofung owes about R7,2 billion, while Matjhabeng owes Eskom about R5,2 billion.
“The two municipalities feature in the top four municipalities in the country owing Eskom.”
He said further evidence had been admitted by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (DCoG) in its submission.
“It highlighted that fruitless and wasteful expenditure by municipalities was R3,6 billion in the 2021-’22 financial year, and in 2022-’23 it ballooned to R4,2 billion – an increase of 18%.
“The ruling party, the ANC, has been governing all the municipalities in the province that are in the doldrums post-1994.
“An in-depth report from 2018 by the former AG, Kimi Makwethu, revealed and predicted the collapse of municipalities in the province, and blamed a deep-rooted culture of irregular expenditure and lack of accountability.”
