Sewerage running in the streets, into private residences and into major rivers like the Vaal and Orange River, are just some of the devastating signs of badly run municipalities in the Free State.
The auditor-general (AG) has confirmed the Free State as the worst-run province in South Africa, with no municipality achieving a clean audit.
According to the report there were also no improvement in the Free State since the 2020/21 report.
All 13 Free State municipalities had material findings on compliance with legislation and contract management except for one municipality that had non-material findings.
The Free State incurred R1,35 billion in irregular expenditure with R5.11 billion irregular expenditure over three years.
Dr. Henk Boshoff Commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission said the commission received roughly 16 000 complaints in 2024 in the Free State. “Most of these were service delivery challenges.”
According to a presentation on the state of Free State municipalities presentation by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional (Cogta) on Tuesday, 18 November, several municipalities struggle with stability due to a shortage of staff. Many municipalities do not have a chief financial officer or a city manager or both.
In Moqkhaka the municipal manager is suspended for the second time, and the post of chief financial officer is also vacant.
Matsjhabeng in the Goldfields do not have a municipal manager since the resignation of the municipal manager in 2024. The acting municipal manager was appointed in contravention of the Act.
According to the Cogta report, none of the municipalities filled their vacant positions within six months. Contributing factors are among others not adhering to regulations. Also delays on the side of councils to declare vacancy. Some municipalities struggle to attract good candidates resulting in multiple re-advertisements.
Boshoff says there is a failure to deal with infrastructure maintenance in municipalities. “In each municipality we have old and dilapidated infrastructure. Municipalities either don’t have sufficient funds to upgrade or replace, or they are just neglecting maintenance of infrastructure like pipes and roads.”
One of the Commission’s recommendations to battling municipalities, is to fill critical vacancies as soon as possible. “They should prioritise the filling of vacancies like chief financial officers and staff in the technical departments.”
Boshoff says there are municipalities in the Free State who are very reluctant to fill vacancies in technical departments and infrastructure. “The reason for that is that they tend to use their budget to collude with business people to provide ‘so-called’ services. There are deals going on between municipalities and business. We are very concerned about that,” Boshoff said in an interview on Newzroom Africa.
He said they compiled a policy brief that will be tabled on how to deal with the water and construction mafias.
At several municipalities, officials admitted that sewerage water is being released in major rivers like the Vaal and Orange River.
Dr Igor Scheurkogel, member of parliament (MP) and member of Cogta and Water and Sanitation, said in September pollution flows into the Wilge River threatening Gauteng’s water supply, while the Caledon and Modder River feed Bloemfontein and the Orange river system.
One of the huge problems shown in the Cogta report is the outstanding contributions from municipalities to SARS, Water Boards and Eskom. Just in Mangaung the metro owes more than R59 million in arrear pension contributions, R588 million to Vaal Central and R1,7 billion to Eskom. This with a collection rate of just 67%.
In the whole of the Free State, municipalities owes more than R10 billion to Water Boards and R29 billion to Eskom with an average collection rate of 38%.
According to Roy Jankielsohn, DA leader in the Free State, municipalities in the province are among the worst offenders in the country when it comes to environmental pollution and service delivery collapse.
“This was confirmed by the South African Human Rights Commission’s damning report last year, which labelled the situation a human rights crisis. To date, nothing has been done to address the problems or hold the guilty cadres accountable.
“The result? The Free State now has the lowest life expectancy in South Africa namely 57,3 years for men and 64,2 years for women, and a staggering poverty rate of 62%.
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