South Africa: Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae visited the Matjhabeng local municipality for a service delivery monitoring trip. During the meeting, hosted on Wednesday the Premier made efforts address several problems of the municipality
The Premier of Free State was accompanying MECs Saki Mokoena and Jabu Mbalula. They were representatives from Departments of Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements and Community Safety, Roads and Transport respectively.
The Premier asked the members of the communities to remain honest while discussing the challenges of the municipality.
Premier Letsoha-Mathae officially starting the engagement in the presence of the Acting Mayor. They were also accompanied by members of the Mayoral Committee and other stakeholders.
During the meeting, Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae reminded those present that the visit was aimed at resolving challenges at the municipality.
“We are not here to fight people, neither are we here to close eyes to an existing problem. What is crystal clear is that there are many problems in Matjhabeng. We must also establish why there are so many challenges, but importantly, find out if these challenges were created by officials and the leadership of the municipality for selfish needs,” said Premier Maqueen Letsoha–Mathae.
She further encouraged attendees to put fear aside and raise matters for the benefit of the people of Matjhabeng.
“We are aware that some of you might be uncomfortable to air your views because of fear of victimisation, but let us not forget that we are here to serve the people. we must overcome that fear.” said the Premier
“Alternatively, we can have a private conversation because as the leadership of the 7th administration, we have made a commitment to the people of our province that we will make service delivery a priority,” she said.
Some of the pertinent issues raised in the meeting were:
- Theft of key water infrastructure
- Experienced personnel such as Civil Engineers have resigned in pursuit of greener pastures
- Lack of capacity in the Project Management Unit
- Reappointment of contractors who failed to complete projects
“It is frustrating because even though we called for openness, we are being given misleading reports. We know for a fact that some contractors who previously did not complete projects, were appointed for other projects. That is not going to assist us because we are here to try and find solutions which will assist this municipality,” Premier Letsoha – Mathae said.
It was however announced that, despite challenges, there was progress made. Contractors have already been appointed for a total of 34 projects which were earmarked for the 2023/24 financial year while 24 projects have been earmarked for the current, 2024/25 financial year.