Intervention in Mangaung is long overdue but real change is needed

9 October 2018

The Democratic Alliance in the Free State notes the announcement made today on SAFM by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, to revisit the distressed and dysfunctional Mangaung metro.

After a prolonged silence since his last visit to Free State municipalities on 22 June 2018, residents had become sceptical that his commitments to put in place mechanisms for financial recovery, runaway expenditure and bloated staff levels, will ever see the light of day.

Mangaung metro, like all failing ANC run municipalities in the country, is currently faced with the collapse in service delivery such as refuse collection, access to clean and safe water, sewer spillages, dirt, potholes and a poor maintenance budget to fix potholes.

After his meeting with the Mangaung Mayor and municipal officials in his previous visit,  it was agreed that the Metro would urgently implement a turnaround plan. Although the Council has since adopted this plan, no real progress has been made with implementation of this plan.

According to the latest municipal survey by the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi), the failing ANC-led Mangaung Metro under the leadership of Mayor Olly Mlamleli, customer satisfaction in the metro has plunged to 41.1 points in 2018. This represents a 10,2% decline from the 51,3 points it received in 2017, which places Mangaung at the bottom of all surveyed metros around the country.

Recently the Metro was engulfed in flames due to the improper management of landfill sites, haphazard refuse collection, free flowing sewage in residential areas and the increasing potholes.

Allegations have also since emerged that the Metro’s Licensing department has not renewed its contract with its service provider, which could deprive the metro of a vital source of income.

Minister Mkhize must commit to specific timelines in turning around the deplorable state of affairs in the metro. His brief must not be about settling internal factional fights within the failing ANC but the restoration of service delivery which has deteriorated rapidly under Mayor Olly Mlamleli.

The DA has on numerous occasions warned that the Mangaung Metro is on the verge of collapse. However, the failing ANC decided that it is much more important to protect its underperforming cardres at the expense of longsuffering residents of Mangaung.

The DA will seek to engage with the Minister when he visits Mangaung in order to ensure that he is not briefed selectively by the political leadership of the Metro. The Minister must be given an honest account of the metros’ well documented failures in service delivery.

It is time for change which puts the people first and accelerates the delivery of quality services. The DA stands ready to build a working Province and One South Africa for all.

Issued by Patricia Kopane, DA Free State Premier Candidate, 9 October 2018