Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Doreen Wessels and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Kabelo Moreeng.
In response to the severe administrative paralysis now crippling service delivery in Phumelela, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will be submitting a formal letter of demand to the Municipal Manager.
The DA requires a comprehensive and verified status report on all yellow fleet assets, including the whereabouts of missing graders, the condition of broken equipment, and the status of newer vehicles, including Mahindra units that have reportedly been taken out of service due to poor maintenance.
We further demand a clear, credible, and time-bound recovery plan outlining how the municipality intends to restore its fleet capacity and urgently address the sewage crisis that now threatens community health and safety. Should the Municipal Manager fail to provide a viable and implementable solution, the DA will escalate the matter to the Free State Provincial Legislature.
This follows the DA’s uncovering of the systemic collapse of the municipality’s mechanical fleet, which has effectively brought essential service delivery to a standstill across Vrede, Warden, and Memel. The administrative seat of Vrede and its surrounding towns have been left without the basic maintenance tools required to function, leaving the municipality unable to fulfil its constitutional mandate to residents.
The crisis is most visible in the near-total absence of functional transport capacity. In Warden and Ezenzeleni, all municipal departments are currently forced to share a single, ageing Toyota bakkie for every task, ranging from refuse removal to emergency water repairs. While a Mahindra vehicle was previously acquired to bolster capacity, poor maintenance has reportedly rendered it unroadworthy and unusable.
This neglect is even more severe in Memel, which currently has no functional municipal vehicle, leaving the town effectively isolated from basic service interventions. In Vrede, the administrative hub of the municipality, the situation is equally dire, with only one functional van and a critical shortage of vehicles required for waste removal and infrastructure maintenance.
Furthermore, the region’s road maintenance capacity has collapsed entirely. Although each of the three towns previously had its own road grader, there is currently not a single functional grader available to service the entire Phumelela region. This failure has directly contributed to deteriorating road conditions and placing communities at serious risk.
The municipality’s sewage vehicles, including essential vacuum tankers and jetting trucks, are either broken down or severely damaged. Without these vehicles to clear blockages and service pump stations, raw sewage has begun overflowing into streets and residential areas, heightening the risk to public health and safety.
The municipality’s inability to navigate deteriorating gravel roads — now largely impassable due to the absence of graders — further prevents what little equipment remains from reaching sewage spill sites and water leakages, deepening the crisis and compounding service delivery failures.
Should the Municipal Manager fail to act decisively, the DA will pursue all available oversight mechanisms at provincial level to ensure accountability.
We remain committed to confronting chronic fleet mismanagement and ensuring that residents of Phumelela no longer endure failing services as a result of administrative neglect.