Hundreds march in Nketoana over poor service delivery
They want the Free State government to put the municipality under administration
Residents marched to the Nketoana local municipality office in Reitz on Thursday to demand better services. Photo: Tladi Moloi
Hundreds of residents marched to the Nketoana local municipality office in Reitz on Thursday to demand better services. They want the Free State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to put the municipality under administration.
Residents say they’re fed up with the municipality’s failure to provide proper services and infrastructure over the past decade. They claim some areas still use buckets as toilets.
March organiser Majola Dumezweni said that the community has struggled to get decent services from the municipality for ten years.
“We are going to engage the office of the National Minister and Special Investigations Unit. Politicians are disturbing the development of our municipality because they go out demanding money from contractors, hence projects are not finished,” he said.
“We have lost confidence in our municipality. We will never get any services under this corrupt leadership. We demand Cogta put the municipality under administration,” he said
The residents’ memorandum was received and signed by Mayor Mamiki Mokoena, municipal manager Mokete Nhlapo and municipal official Disebo Motaung. The municipality promised the community to respond to their grievances within seven days.
GroundUp has previously reported on the unfinished sports facility in Ntha, Lindley which the municipality paid nearly R15-million for. The stadium is incomplete, unused, unmaintained and has been vandalised.
In October, we published a story on a Free State school’s bid to halt the building of a municipal reservoir on its premises in Leratswana Arlington because of delays caused by the municipality’s failure to pay contractors.
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