Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Dr Igor Scheurkogel MP and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Lebohang Chalala. See attached pictures here and here.
- Heilbron residents face uncertainty over basic services.
- DA demands accountability for municipal assets and repairs.
- CoGTA must ensure a clear, funded handover plan.
Heilbron residents are being left in the cold as Ngwathe fails to respond to basic service-delivery complaints. With the town due to become part of Metsimaholo, residents deserve to know who will keep services running over the coming month and who will take responsibility after the handover.
I warned that Free State CoGTA MEC Saki Mokoena’s premature dissolution of the Ngwathe Municipal Council, only months before the local government elections, would create instability. The unresolved service delivery problems in Heilbron demonstrate exactly why that warning mattered.
Section 139(5) (a) of the Constitution requires a binding recovery plan to restore a municipality’s ability to provide basic services and meet its financial obligations. In August, the NCOP Select Committee recommended withdrawing Ngwathe’s dissolution and imposing the recovery plan first. It recommended dissolution under section 139(5)(b) only if the council could not or would not approve the legislative measures needed to implement that plan.
Residents deserve to see what the intervention is actually delivering.
Ex-Ngwathe Councillor Robert Ferendal raised concerns about municipal vehicles and equipment sitting broken or unused while the municipality hires contractors to provide the same services. A contractor’s refuse truck is being used while the municipality’s own truck is out of service. Similar concerns apply to the cherry picker and other equipment.
The municipality must disclose the costs of hiring these vehicles and equipment, as well as the costs and timelines for repairing its own assets. Public money must be spent responsibly and transparently, and residents must receive value for every rand.
Two high-mast floodlights in Sandersville, which Robert Ferendale reported a week ago, remain unrepaired. Residents need functioning lighting and a municipality that responds when faults are reported.
Delayed maintenance and weak accountability carry consequences for public health, the environment and everyday service delivery.
CoGTA has not given Heilbron residents a clear, funded service delivery plan for the coming month. Ngwathe is failing to respond, and Metsimaholo is not stepping in. Where must residents turn for assistance?
Heilbron cannot be treated as no-man’s-land where every resident must fend for themselves. Until service responsibilities are lawfully transferred, Ngwathe and its administrator remain accountable for serving Heilbron. The provincial government must ensure continuity throughout the transition.
The DA calls on Mokoena, the Ngwathe administrator and both municipal managers to urgently publish a plan identifying who is responsible for each service, the available budget, repair deadlines and a working complaints and escalation channel. Refuse removal, faulty lighting and broken municipal equipment require immediate attention.
CoGTA must also publish the Heilbron handover timetable and explain how staff, assets, budgets and outstanding service complaints will be transferred to Metsimaholo. Residents must know who to contact before and after incorporation, and how Metsimaholo will be equipped to fulfil its responsibilities.
On 4 November, residents can send the ANC a clear message: we will not be used for your political battles while we sit without services.
Heilbron residents deserve better. They deserve a municipality that answers them, repairs its infrastructure and delivers the services it is entrusted to provide.