Free State Finance MEC, Gadija Brown, says this development was announced in late October 2021 and word that renewable energy giant, Renergen, has invested in the prospect of natural gas and helium in Virginia, is great news for the province. 

Boshof falls under the financially dysfunctional Tokologo Local Municipality alongside the towns of Dealesville and Hertzogville. The dysfunctionality of the municipality is evidenced via the lack of service delivery to which Tokologo is yet to respond.

The issues include inconsistent water supply blamed on a lack of maintenance at water treatment plants by the municipality, overflowing sewage in the towns’ streets and the installation of prepaid electrical metres in some of the towns allegedly without the consultation of the community or the consent of the homeowners. 

Media enquiries sent to the municipality on these issues and the rationale behind the construction of a R2,1 million multipurpose court in Hertzogville’s Malebogo township as opposed to resolving said issues, remain unanswered. 

In August 2021 the OFM News team spoke to one of the disgruntled community members from Dealesville, butchery and guesthouse owner, Christa Hattingh. Hattingh told OFM News that it’s as if “there is no municipality” because they do not get answers when probing the aforementioned service delivery issues. She says that they as citizens are doing their best to remedy the situation by going to the municipality, but it doesn’t appear to be yielding any positive results.

Previously, Hertzogville businessman and contractor, Toller Faber, who at the time of the interview was attempting to temporarily fix the town’s main road at his own cost, alleged that for most of August, the town didn’t really have consistent water supply - equating it to no water at all. 

When the municipality was probed on the issue, residents were informed the problem lay with a broken pump at the water treatment plant. 

Faber, who formed part of the erection of the water treatment plant in question which was unveiled in a glitzy ceremony in 2014, says there are reserve pumps at the plant. The problem is that the pumps are not adequately serviced and when one is broken, the municipality relies on reserve pumps. 

The OFM News team also paid a visit to the water treatment plant, to ascertain where the issues lie and an employee anonymously revealed that most of the water compressors at the fancy treatment plant are not working and haven’t been serviced in months. 

The employee says he has reported the matter to his superiors, but to date many of these technical issues go unresolved. 

In 2014, the then Deputy Minister for Water and  Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, together with the former Free State Premier, Mr Ace Magashule, launched the bulk water scheme from Christiana to Hertzogville on water from boreholes in the area. 

It remains to be seen if the solar power farms will indeed change the service delivery tide for Boshof and the other towns.

OFM News