Lusaka and Masilo clinics in Theunissen have remained closed for at least two months. The clinics were shut down on the instruction of the department of employment and labour because of severe water shortages, low internal water pressure, and poor hygiene conditions that violated health and safety requirements.

OFM News previously reported pregnant patients had to walk long distances carrying buckets to fetch water for themselves, while toilets at the clinic had been locked for years due to the lack of running water.

Appearing before members of the Free State provincial legislature, health head Ernest Mohlalo said the department had fulfilled its responsibilities regarding the refurbishment of the facilities.

He said the department had ensured the required refurbishment work was completed, and the clinics were in good condition, but the challenge remained the municipality’s failure to supply water.

Free State Health MEC Monyatso Mahlatsi expressed concern over Masilonyana Municipality’s inability to provide basic services, saying the failures were placing additional pressure on the health department’s finances and operations.

“The other thing that is not giving me and the team sleepless nights is this issue of when the municipality is unable to deliver services, for instance the HOD when there’s no water which is the responsibility of municipality in a particular space. But then the whole pressure gets offloaded into health in that despite the fact that theres no water in this space but then health has to make an extra effort to ensure there’s water,” Mahlatsi told legislators.

He said the department was forced to divert resources from other planned programmes to respond to municipal failures.

“As the department tries to avail water, it has to pull resources which were meant to be directed and budgeted for other things. Later, when the crisis happens, they would have resolved issues which were not of their own doing in the first place.”  

The impact on residents has been severe. OFM News reported elderly residents, women, and children were forced to wait in the cold during winter to receive medical attention after the closure of the area’s two clinics.

The municipality has faced mounting criticism over persistent water supply failures. Residents have linked the crisis to repeated vandalism of water infrastructure, while some have alleged the vandalism is being orchestrated by individuals seeking to benefit from municipal water tanker contracts during prolonged outages.

Public anger reached a boiling point on Wednesday (5/8) when Free State premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae was chased out of a hall in Winburg by furious residents demanding the immediate restoration of water supply.

‘Officials have remained largely silent’

Residents say they have been without water for more than two weeks, while municipal officials have remained largely silent.

After the meeting, residents blocked the N1 outside Makeleketla in Winburg with burning tyres and rocks in protest against the prolonged outages. OFM News made several attempts to obtain comment from the municipality but received no response. 

DA councillor Brun Rossouw said the crisis worsened after Masilonyana’s leadership appeared before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts in Cape Town in May.

Rossouw said municipal workers allegedly discovered the municipality was classified at salary level three while employees were being paid at level one. The dispute is understood to have triggered an ongoing strike, and municipal offices were reportedly closed for a period.

The municipality is also facing a leadership crisis. Its chief financial officer was dismissed after it emerged he had been appointed unlawfully, while the municipal manager has been placed on precautionary suspension.

Masilonyana mayor Dimakatso Modise is also reportedly defying ANC provincial leadership after refusing to step down. She is among several mayors whom the party instructed to resign because of poor governance and failures in service delivery.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi dg

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