Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by David Mc Kay MPL and Sesotho soundbite by David Masoeu MPL.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted an urgent motion for a provincial municipal recovery task team, led by independent technical administrators, to enforce consequence management, restore financial discipline, and deliver transparent progress reports to the public. This is the only credible path to rescue Free State municipalities from the abyss of ANC-engineered collapse. The withholding of equitable share allocations from sixteen Free State municipalities is not a technical adjustment; it is the final alarm bell after years of ANC misrule, incompetence, and self-indulgence. How can the ANC, with a straight face, ask voters for another mandate when its legacy is one of financial ruin, service delivery collapse, and contempt for the law? This crisis is not the result of insufficient funding but of a political culture that treats public resources as spoils for the connected few, not as a means to serve the people.
For years, Auditor-General reports have documented the rot in Free State municipalities: since 2021, at least ten Free State councils have been flagged for persistent unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFWE), with millions in pension fund contributions, Eskom, and water board payments left unpaid. The July 2026 Section 216 list confirms that Free State municipalities are among the worst offenders nationally for failing to address UIFWE and implement consequence management, with three councils adopting unfunded budgets, eight defaulting on SARS, seven on Eskom, and six on water boards. This entrenched financial mismanagement and lack of accountability have directly led to the withholding of equitable share allocations, leaving communities and municipal workers to bear the brunt of failed leadership. Yet the ANC’s response has been denial, delay, and the systematic destruction of accountability. Municipal Public Accounts Committees are dysfunctional or non-existent, and consequence management is a foreign concept. Cadre deployment trumps competence, and the result is a system in which 80% of some municipal budgets are squandered on salaries, leaving nothing for infrastructure or the poor.
The DA has exposed how municipalities such as Mangaung, Nala, and Masilonyana have failed to pay pension funds, Eskom, and water boards, plunging residents into darkness and despair. The ANC’s reckless salary bills and unfunded budgets have left municipalities unable to meet even their most basic obligations.
The DA’s plan is clear: establish a recovery task team with real powers, require bi-weekly public progress reports, prosecute and remove officials responsible for the financial collapse, and restore sound financial controls. On 4 November, voters can end this cycle of failure. The DA stands ready to rebuild Free State municipalities through honest leadership, transparent governance, and a relentless focus on service delivery for all.