Parliament, Thursday, 20 March 2025 – The Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Public Administration (Traditional Affairs, Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation) has serious concerns on hearing that Matjhabeng Local Municipality loses in excess of R480 million to non-revenue water as a result of aging infrastructure and water leaks.
The committee said the loss of such a large amount of money in Matjhabeng Local Municipality is unacceptable and is the antithesis of the municipality’s financial recovery plan, which aims to rebuild the municipality’s financial capacity so that it is better able to meet its constitutional mandate of providing services to residents. The committee said the lost R480 million should be an essential revenue collection stream to ensure the municipality has the cash flow it requires. The committee called for whatever is causing this loss of revenue to cease immediately.
The committee concluded the second leg of its three-day oversight visit to Matjhabeng Local Municipality yesterday as part of the Free State provincial government’s intervention in the municipality.
The committee Chairperson, Mr Mxolisi Kaunda, said: “While we have commended some of the corrective actions being taken by the municipality to remedy the situation, it is imperative that these plans are speeded up to ensure that the municipality is able to derive revenue for this critical service.”The committee visited the municipality to interact with internal and external stakeholders to engage with them on the constitutional, procedural and substantive matters related to the Free State Provincial Executive Council’s Section 139 (5)(a) and (c) intervention.
The committee was informed that the municipality is struggling to address water losses and sewage spillages arising from old infrastructure. Also, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said that the municipality had not presented an implementation plan to address shortcomings discovered in an SAHRC inquiry into the municipality’s residential water supply.
While the committee noted that the municipality has developed the plan that awaits the approval of the provincial executive council, it urged the municipality to implement the plan to stop water leaks and sewage spill challenges.
Meanwhile, the committee noted various allegations around the municipality’s fleet procurement contract and called for an extensive investigation to test the allegations. The committee remains steadfast in the belief that corruption and malfeasance must be uprooted, as they are dangerous viruses that kill effective governance. Furthermore, the committee called for swift consequence management to deal with these ills.
It also welcomed the assurance that there has been an improvement in relations between the municipality and its workers, as this is critical for effective service delivery. The committee also called for continuous engagements between the municipality and labour to ensure disputes are amicably resolved before they escalate.
Meanwhile, the committee raised concerns about allegations that the municipality is not paying workers’ contributions to retirement funds, which will deny workers access to their retirement benefits. The committee called on the municipality to resolve this problem, as workers deserve a dignified retirement after long service.
Regarding the Financial Recovery Plan, the committee urged the municipality to improve its billing system to ensure that its clients, particularly ratepayers, pay for services rendered to them. This will enable the municipality to generate additional revenue that can be channelled towards improving service delivery.
The committee also underscored that a 50% taxes and services collection rate is not enough for the required revenue to improve services, as it is unacceptably below the minimum norm of 75%. It urged the municipality to finalise its indigent register to ensure households that are able to pay for services do so.
The committee noted the willingness shown by the business community to invest in the municipality to build an economy that creates employment opportunities in the municipality to reduce the unemployment that has been a prevalent social scourge.
Following the interaction with all stakeholders, the committee will now deliberate on submissions made and make a recommendation to the National Council of Provinces for either support or rejection of the intervention.
The committee will today undertake a proactive oversight visit to Kopanong Local Municipality to assess the impact of the interventions invoked in terms of section 139 (1)(b) of the Constitution invoked on 17 May 2023. The committee will during this visit interact with internal and external stakeholders to solicit their opinions on the impact of interventions.
Details of the visit are as follows:
Date: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Time: 10:00
Venue: Kopanong Municipal Offices (Trompsburg)
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, MR MXOLISI KAUNDA.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Malatswa Molepo (Mr)
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8438
Cell: 081 512 7920
E-mail: mmolepo@parliament.gov.za
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