President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Saturday visit the embattled Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in the Free State as part of the Presidential Imbizo.
President @CyrilRamaphosa will on Saturday lead government’s engagement with communities in Mangaung, Free State, in a 2nd post-SONA #PresidentialImbizo themed on the President’s SONA call to action, Leave No One Behind. https://t.co/6iNIzzY98L pic.twitter.com/nRHjGpqX7m
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) April 8, 2022
Cabinet has decided to put the municipality under national administration after a series of governance failures and financial mismanagement.
The president’s visit will help to unlock all challenges to service delivery in line with the District Development Model.
The Mangaung municipality is one of the country’s eight metros that have failed on multiple fronts.
It was placed under the provincial administration in 2019 after failing to implement a financial recovery plan from the previous year.
However, the situation worsened forcing the national government to take charge of its administration.
Residents say service delivery is almost non-existent with intermittent water cuts, roads in a state of disrepair, and refusal taking weeks if not months.
Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality owes Bloem Water more than R200 million :
President Ramaphosa is worried and vows to turn things around. Several ministers will be on the ground on Friday morning as a build-up to the president’s visit.
