The bone of contention isn’t the erection of the multipurpose centre per se, but rather that the Tokologo Local Municipality deems it befitting to make the splurge on a sports facility at a time when Hertzogville, Dealesville and Boshof’s roads are in tatters and service delivery is non-existent. 

The OFM News team bore witness to these conditions during a visit to Hertzogville at the top of the week and spoke to local businessman and contractor, Toller Faber, who at the time of the interview was attempting to temporarily fix the town’s main road at his own cost. According to Faber, it isn’t just the roads that are a problem at the Tokologo Local Municipality.

The businessman alleges that for most of August, the town didn’t really have consistent water supply - equating it to no water at all. When the municipality was probed on the issue, residents were informed the problem lay with a broken pump at the water treatment plant. Faber, who formed part of the erection of the water treatment plant in question, which was unveiled in a glitzy ceremony in 2014 says there are reserve pumps at the plant. The problem is that the pumps are not adequately serviced and when one is broken, the municipality relies on reserve pumps.

The Tokologo Local Municipality could not be reached for comment on the aforementioned allegations. OFM News submitted questions and is awaiting a response.

The OFM News team also paid a visit to the water treatment plant, to ascertain where the issues lie and an employee anonymously revealed that most of the water compressors at the fancy treatment plan are not working and haven’t been serviced in months. The employee says he has reported the matter to his superiors, but to date many of these technical issues go unresolved.  

In 2014, the then Deputy  Minister  for  Water  and  Environmental  Affairs Ms Rejoice  Mabudafhasi,  together  with  the Free State  Premier Ace Magashule, launched the bulk  water  scheme  from  Christiana  to Hertzogville, which according to a statement released at the time, comprised of the aforementioned water treatment plant  “abstraction work near Christiana, along  the  Vaal  River  pump  station; the raw  water  storage  dam  near Christiana,  along  the Vaal River; the raw  water  pipeline,  300  mm  diameter,  about  42  km  long,  parallel  to the  R708  Road;  clear  water  storage  reservoir  at  the  WTP;  raw  water  pump  stations  at  Christiana,” etc. Prior to this development in 2014, the people of Hertzogville were reliant on water from boreholes in the area.  

In October 2020, 100 000 hectares of land near Hertzogville were burned during devastating veld fires believed to have broken out during protest action by residents on the R708 over water issues. OFM News is informed that at that stage, residents were grossly unhappy with the municipality over the lack of water. It was reported that one farmer in Hertzogville lost approximately R900 000 in livestock and incurred R3 million in damage to property on his farm.

OFM News/Olebogeng Motse and Kekeletso Mosebetsi