At this stage the situation in the Free State capital, Botshabelo, Dewetsdorp, Thaba’ Nchu and Wepener, appears to be normal with no major unrest reported thus far over the weekend, aside from barricaded roads in Rocklands and Phelindaba township in Bloemfontein. The Mangaung Service Delivery Forum a.k.a MSDF, is disgruntled at the recruitment process for the metro’s dedicated police division, alleging that those in power in the metro have used their influence to have family members and affiliates hired at the metro.

Opposition parties like the Freedom Front Plus have echoed the pressure group’s sentiments with respect to the cost of the department, questioning how a municipality as financially dysfunctional as Mangaung afford to launch and run a department like this one. To this end the metro has via a statement from its Municipal Manager, Sello More, refuted the aforementioned allegations. More says to date, Mangaung Metro has had Traffic and Law Enforcement divisions, which fall under the Public Safety sub-directorate. In other words the municipality was already coughing out money on law enforcement and one of the conditions of their approval of a metro police department is that the personnel and budget of the existing Public Safety sub-directorate must be moved to said metro police division, and the necessary Human Resource processes that must be followed. However no mention is made on the part of the metro of the law enforcement’s ineffectiveness prior to this application, which most of their detractors mention.

With respect to recruitment of offices “we also indicated that trainees are entitled to wear their training uniform; those that are in the metro’s college and training are entitled to apply but this will only happen in the next batch of absorption and not during the process of migration. This will only be in the external advertisement of posts to allow members of the community an opportunity to apply and compete” says the acting Municipal Manager, Sello More.

With respect to affordability More says the metro was already under financial intervention when it received the thumbs up from the MEC of Police, Roads and Transport, Sam Mashinini in March 2020. Comically, Mashinini is as of Friday no longer the MEC of this division allegedly due to questionable decision making.

The department was meant to be launched at the Free State Stadium on Thursday but had to be postponed at the last minute following mounting pressure from the Mangaung Service Delivery Forum (MSDF).

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