The Free State Department of Cooperative Governance says the Mangaung Metro defied advice from Deputy President David Mabuza and COGTA MEC Mxolisi Dukwana by going ahead in setting up the metro police unit. The Metro is now in trouble with National Treasury.

A letter from Treasury has instructed the municipality to stop the implementation of the metro police service with immediate effect.

“The President said we must actually look into this matter while we were trying to engage the metro, we were also caught by surprise that the official launch and appointment and everything that goes with the metro police had actually been implemented. We raised some reservations. Last week, the MEC for COGTA, Ntate Dukwana met with them to try and establish this metro police and in that meeting, we discovered that there was a whole lot of things that never followed procedure,” Head of  Department of Provincial Co-operative Governance, Mokete Duma explains.

Opposition parties say their warnings to the Mangaung Metro regarding the establishment of the metro police service fell on deaf ears. This as they welcomed news that National Treasury has written to the Metro instructing them to ground the establishment of the metro police.

“National Treasury has just confirmed our suspicions. What we have been saying as EFF in the Free State, the failure of that metro is not just a failure of the metro but it’s a failure of provincial government lead by Ma Ntombela,” EFF’s Bosanku Msimanga explains.

“We also welcome the request from Treasury for disciplinary steps to be taken against the individuals that established the Mangaung Metro,” the DA’s Dirk Kotze added.

“Similar to Ramkraal and the Vrede dairy farm this metro service is another embarrassment to the people of the province under the ANC,” says Freedom Front Plus’ Armans Cloete.