The national organiser of the F4SD, Thebe Ntsane, says they will hand over a memorandum of demand to the Matjhabeng Mayor Thandixolo Khalipha, who they hope will deliver on their demands. He says that their demands include the completion of housing projects that have been abandoned and since hijacked by groupings of foreign nationals, amongst others. Nthane adds that this has since left intended beneficiaries homeless. He also says they have been marching and writing letters to the municipality and various government departments and not receiving any desired answers.

“Today we are going to ask our mayor and the MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Mxolisi Dukwana, to intervene. Today we want answers and we are hoping that they are going to cooperate because all of them, it seems, want to delay this thing because it involves officials of the Matjhabeng municipality,” he adds.

Ntsane further adds that they will also be calling for the removal of illegal occupants. He says they will not rest until the municipality and the provincial government gives them a positive response.

ALSO READ: Free State mayor scrutinised over service delivery issues

The Matjhabeng Local Municipality has recently been in the spotlight over issues of non-existing service delivery. The Democratic Alliance's (DA) Matjhabeng caucus leader, Igor Scheurkogel, had lashed out at the poor state of service delivery by the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, alleging that each ward has raw sewage running down the streets. He also stated that the entire municipality has a single serviceable TLB and cherry picker. Scheurkogel said that the lack of equipment and maintenance led to the infrastructure collapse.

ALSO READ: Investigations into Matjhabeng sewer death continue

A body of an elderly lady was recovered from a manhole when municipal workers were inspecting manholes at the time of the incident.

OFM News has since sent an enquiry to the Matjhabeng Local Municipality and is awaiting a response.

OFM News