This, as the South African Local Government Association (Salga) holds its second leg of the 2020 Free State provincial members assembly. 

The two-day assembly kicked off with members expressing concerns over the lack of governance and political leadership in many municipalities. Issues pertaining to governance, and how the lack thereof affects municipalities and their capacity to deliver services, were sharply raised by members - including the Chairperson of the Free State House of Traditional Leaders, Kgosikgadi Moroka. 

Whilst Moroka and many other leaders appealed for improved service delivery to communities, the head of the association in the province is expected on Wednesday to outline how Salga will be intervening to ensure that Free State municipalities carry out their duties to communities.

OFM News previously reported on how the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) also raised concerns over the state of municipalities in the province during their visit last week.

The Council expressed great concern at how municipalities in the province have failed to produce any clean audits despite the interventions by the provincial government. They said those under administration, including the Mangaung Metro Municipality, have not shown much improvement.

Escalating Eskom and water boards debt by the Matjhabeng and Maluti-A-Phofung is another cause of concern as the power utility has recently taken a legal action against them resulting in the attachments of their bank accounts.

Day two of the provincial assembly is expected to paint a picture of the role played by association in redressing some of these challenges.

OFM News