Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr René Steyn and Sesotho soundbite by Jafta Mokoena MPL.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) demands an urgent intervention plan by the Acting Municipal Manager of Matjhabeng Municipality to address the ongoing collapse of the Department of Community Services.
For weeks, residents across Matjhabeng have suffered the consequences of a department that is not adequately capacitated, equipped, or managed.
What began as an excuse for a shortage of PPE has now exposed a far deeper rot: one of chronic mismanagement, poor planning, and a blatant disregard for service delivery.
Municipal workers were left without basic protective gear for over six weeks, halting refuse collection in many areas. But PPE was merely the symptom.
Before that, the excuses shifted between EPWP shortages and truck breakdowns, none of which should have paralysed an entire service if proper contingency planning, budgeting, and oversight were in place.
The department’s inability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to these operational realities is an apparent failure of leadership. When services like refuse collection grind to a halt, it doesn’t just inconvenience residents; it triggers a domino effect of illegal dumping, overgrown public spaces, fires, and increased crime, which will now take weeks, if not months, to clean up.
This administration has proven where its priorities lie: millions spent on hosting an “investment summit”, while residents wade through filth, cut their own grass, and live amid mounting waste.
The very department tasked with safeguarding community hygiene and environmental health has been reduced to a hollow shell, crippled by negligence and deprived of resources.
We therefore demand that the Acting Municipal Manager immediately outline how the municipality plans to:
- Catch up on the refuse backlog and clean up the illegal dumping that has mushroomed across Welkom.
- Restore routine refuse collection and maintenance schedules; and
- Explain why PPE procurement and planning were so poorly managed that an entire department was left unable to perform its basic duties for nearly two months.
Residents deserve transparency and a clear recovery plan, not shifting excuses and empty promises.
Until the municipality can demonstrate that it is capable of planning, capacitating its departments, and maintaining even the most basic of services, Matjhabeng will remain trapped in a cycle of chaos and decay.