This will be followed by a march to the Free State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), MEC Ketso Makume’s office to hand in the signatures and memorandum.

The aim is to get 1000 signatures from the province’s residents who are tired of the sanitation disaster.

Action SA recently visited residents of Allanridge in the Matjhabeng Municipality whose houses are submerged in sewage.

From left to right: Thabiso Mokatla, next to him Patricia Kopane, and two Allanridge residents.

Residents were forced to look for alternative accommodation as their houses were immersed in sewage.

“What Allanridge’s residents are experiencing is the same for almost all the residents in the Free State. More than 100 residents have been misplaced,” said Action SA Free State Provincial Chairperson, Patricia Kopane.

New infrastructure is required due to the province's severely deteriorated sewage system's inability to manage large amounts of sewage.

“We will not fold our arms and watch Free State being washed with sewage,” added Kopane.

Action SA will then give MEC Makume two weeks to respond and if he fails to do so they have promised to press criminal charges against FS Cogta for contravening Sections 24 and 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and Section 24 of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), 108 of 1988.

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