By REGINALD KANYANE
11 August 2025 – The joint parliamentary delegation that conducted a joint oversight visit to the Free State last month will tomorrow conclude its engagements with the final four municipalities in the province.
The delegation led by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Dr Zweli Mkhize and including members from the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Standing Committee (SCOPA) on the Auditor-General, along with several Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) in the Free State.
Mkhize said the joint oversight delegation engaged with 23 municipalities, however, due to time constraints, it was unable to pose questions to the last four municipalities. He said these municipalities are Setsoto Local Municipality, Dihlabeng Local Municipality, Nketoana Local Municipality, and Phumelela Local Municipality.
“Among the issues the delegation interrogated were municipalities’ billions in unpaid debt, with one municipality owing over R8 billion to a water board, failure to pay pension contributions deducted from workers’ salaries and paying millions in often unauthorised overtime.
“At the same time, service delivery has all but collapsed. Municipalities also had to account for litigation driven by unpaid service providers, irregular tenders, decades-long impunity and unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure reported of over R7 billion in some municipalities,” said Mkhize.
He said following the conclusion of its engagement with Free State municipalities, he will outline the next steps as the parliamentary committees are scheduled to move to North West and Gauteng at the beginning of September, where members will engage with more municipalities.
The Guardian 