The DA has called on Free State Premier Mxolisi Dukwana for intervention in the finances of the Matjhabeng Municipality in accordance with Chapter 13 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
Residents in various towns of the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, which includes the Free State’s second largest city, Welkom, have been without water for extended periods of time.
The requested intervention would require the provincial executive to take appropriate steps to appoint a suitably qualified person to prepare a financial recovery plan for the municipality; to recommend appropriate changes to the municipality’s budget and revenue-raising measures that will give effect to the plan; and to submit the recovery plan and any recommendations referred to therein to the MEC for local government within a period determined by the MEC.
The DA also attached to its request an analysis of how the municipality has defaulted on its payments to Bloem Water since July 2014.
“This inability to pay its debt to the water board and the municipality’s inability to manage its finances have led to critical bulk and municipal infrastructure deteriorating, leading to continued water problems throughout the city and smaller towns that make up Matjhabeng,” says
George Michalakis MP, DA constituency head for the Matjhabeng Local Municipality.
“It is completely unacceptable that citizens are deprived of basic services for extended periods of time due to maladministration,” he says.
