Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Committee Chairperson, Faith Muthambi, on Wednesday grilled the provincial government led by Acting Premier Mamiki Qabathe, on the progress of the Mangaung Metro, Maluti-A-Phofung, Mafube, and Metsimaholo Local Municipalities, stating that there seems to not be much progression as they are still grappling with “crumbling infrastructure, political and administrative instability, financial mismanagement and corruption, among other things”. 

The four municipalities are amongst the 23 distressed Free State municipalities that failed to produce a single clean audit.

Whilst Qabathe told the committee there is a notable progress in all municipalities, Muthambi demanded clarity as to how the province is intervening in municipalities under administration as the Free State Provincial Government alone owes the Mangaung Metro over R630 million and schools’ debt amounts to R121.5 million.

The Committee’s questions over the state of the metro and other municipalities in the province further drew attention to concerns recently raised by the Auditor-General (AG) over municipalities in the Free State.

In his 2018/19 local government report, Kimi Makwetu highlighted that there is a deliberate lack of accountability by political and administrative leadership across all municipalities in the province. He said municipalities in the Free State not only failed to produce clean audits, but has their expenses continuing to exceed revenue.

Head of the AG in the Free State, Luthando Mbandazayo, during a media briefing a week ago, further highlighted that their latest report only includes the audit outcomes of 15 municipalities out of 23, due to those that failed to make submissions of their financial statements and said the majority of municipalities in the province are in a vulnerable position largely due to a lack of accountability.

Mbandazayo has highlighted that 100% of municipalities in Xhariep, Mangaung, and Thabo Mofutsanyana particularly require urgent intervention while others are also of great concern.

Meanwhile, Qabathe has vowed to answer all the questions they could not provide on Wednesday, in writing to the Committee.

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