Bloemfontein, which means a “fountain of flowers” in Afrikaans, is the capital city of the Free State Province. Also known as Bloem or “the City of roses” it’s home to 577 560 residents, according to the United Nations World Urbanisation Prospects.
The City falls under the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.
Bloemfontein hosts the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa’s first digital planetarium. The city’s Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning “place of cheetahs”.
According to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ District Profile of 2020, Mangaung Metro’s unemployment is 25.3%, 20 684 have no schooling and 175 022 have matric. Using the lower bound poverty line 36.6% of the population lives in poverty.
In this weekly feature, SABC News captures the voices of communities about their experience with service delivered by their municipality.
This week, Digital News producer Lebo Tshangela speaks to the community leaders and residents of Bloemfontein.
Below is the full podcast:
