Fed-up residents of Matjhabeng Local Municipality have called on government not to make Presidential Imbizos a talk shop. They have decried the lack of service delivery, water provision and basic sanitation at an Imbizo in Welkom in the Free State. Although government has announced several interventions, community members say they cannot wait any longer.
Residents are faced with sewer spillages, blocked drains, rubbish pilling up on street corners and potholes. To make matters worse, they also grapple with load shedding and constant water cuts.
“As residents here we are faced with a crisis of water shedding on top of load shedding,” a resident explains.
“There are a lot of issues in this place, we don’t have water, the water is dirty, we are sick the sewage is there,” another resident elaborates.
Video: Presidential Imbizo – Free State communities concerned about opportunities for the youth
However, the residents are cautiously optimistic about government’s commitment to resolve their issues. The commitments from government include allocating millions of rands to resolve the water crisis.
“There were people who were complaining about water, saying they don’t get water at particular times, there are two lines that supply Matjhabeng. One is Virginia line and the other is Bulkfontein. Virginia line is the only one that is functional at the moment, Bulkfontein line collapsed. Now we have allocated money for that line to be refurbished to be redone. We brought it in October this year, it’s R243. 7 million,” says Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged that some municipalities in the Free State are dysfunctional as a result of corruption. He’s committed that through the intervention of the national government, municipalities will get their act together.
“The municipalities here in the Free State don’t work, they don’t work the way in which they are supposed to work. Others deliberately ran the municipalities to the ground, as they were stealing money. Now we are re-building our municipalities, we are reviving them. Even the work they were doing, we as national government are taking over. Some municipalities in the Free State don’t work, they are dysfunctional because of corruption and malfeasance that took place,”
Weighing in on the financial issues that are affecting the governing party, the ANC president says the party will be rolling out its campaign machinery, leading up to the elections despite its financial woes.
“The ANC like any other party does face challenges when it comes to issues of resource mobilization. We have faced difficult moments like these and we’ve always overcome them. We will overcome this one, we will solve this challenge and we will campaign very vigorously and we will be well-resourced as we go into the campaign for next year’s elections, you watch the space,”
