Opposition parties at the Provincial Legislature gave different views on her plans for the province for this financial year. EFF provincial chairperson, Mandisa Makesini, tells OFM News that most of what Premier Ntombela said, is 70% of what she said in 2021 but they were, however, happy about the announcement on plans to curb crime in the province.

“I think 70% of the statement is what she said last year but the reaction what we want to see are these initiatives to bring jobs to our people because last year we didn’t have those partners. The hope is that they will develop the people and deal with the issue of unemployment.

"The issue of the roads that were supposed to be finished last year - they are still to be finished this year in this financial year but nevertheless, there is nothing new. The only thing that I applaud is the issue of crime, because the stats are low. We don’t want to have low stats, we don’t want to see any crime in our province,” she adds.

The DA provincial leader, Roy Jankielsohn, also had a stern view on Ntombela's Sopa and says the premier didn’t deal with the real problems that people are facing.

“Our people in the Free State, especially our municipalities, are experiencing huge crises. The premier gave a business-as-usual speech this morning, she didn’t deal with the real problems that they are facing, 450 000 Free State residents are without jobs and don’t know where the next meal will come from. She spoke about a couple of jobs that the government will provide in the next financial year and provided in the previous year, but what about the private sector? Unless our municipalities are able to deliver water, sewerage services and roads infrastructure, our businesses will not thrive and it’s our businesses that must create jobs and livelihoods for people in the Free State. She spoke about the provincial roads which we also requested her to do, but some of those roads projects that she mentioned are projects that comes from several years back and the reason that they weren't completed, obviously is because of court cases and poor tender procedures,” Jankielsohn adds.

Meanwhile, Freedom Front Plus' (FF Plus) Armand Cloete says Ntombela is in a state of denial. He says Ntombela’s own party is at war with itself and that it is evident at the Mangaung Metro, the Matjhabeng, and the Dihlabeng Local Municipality.

“The premier is denying the fact that her own party is a party that is at war with itself and you see that playing out in Mangaung, Matjhabeng and Dihlabeng, and almost every big municipality in the Free State that is created by instability owing to factionalism and power-hungry politicians within the camps. She is also in denial about our roads. It’s just not an inconvenience, people are dying and farmers are expected to fix their own roads whilst the government does very little about the poor roads in the Free State.

Meanwhile, Ntombela on Monday admitted that many of the Free State municipalities are in a dire state and running sewage on the streets, poor water supply, and mismanagement are all too common.    

Ntombela said “water provision in municipalities is being stabilised. Equitable support to Water Service Authorities will be maintained with the disbandment of Sedibeng Water and the extension of the area of service of Bloem Water”.      

OFM News