According to the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Mxolisi Dukwana, municipalities are facing serious challenges which threaten the future of this province. 

During the tabling of his 2022/23 budget in the Provincial Legislature, Dukwana said that some challenges in municipalities are structural and cannot be attributed to a single event. Dukwana once told the State Capture Commission, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that the former Free State premier Ace Magashule captured the province through fraud and corruption.

Also read: Dukwana to reveal details on how Magashule allegedly captured FS

In his address on Thursday, he revealed that the bulk challenges faced by municipalities were caused by years of state capture, whose melting pot was in the Free State. "There is a sense in which the shortage of skills in municipalities, is one of the primary reasons for a poor service delivery record,” he added.

OFM News previously reported that the leading prosecutor, Peter Serunye, in the R24 million feasibility study of the fraud and corruption case related to Estina, told the Bloemfontein Magistrate Estelle de Lange that - from the testimonies in the state capture commission - it came to the fore that the Gupta family accumulated R49 billion in the country, and R25 million looted from the study was just a portion of it.

Also read: Free State often looted by Guptas

Dukwana at the State Capture Commission told Zondo that during his tenure as an MEC, he was offered R2 million monthly in exchange for his signature on a document that would have authorised a government investment deal worth R41,8 billion, to build a "New City" in the Lejweleputswa District Municipality, which would have benefited the controversial Gupta family, Magashule, and their associates.

The National Council of Provinces' (NCOP) select committee, which is currently crisscrossing the Free State, recently hinted that chapter nine institutions such as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) could be called to assist with allegations.

The permanent delegate to the NCOP from the Free State, Itumeleng Ntsube, who is chairing these oversight visits in the Free State over five days, was reacting to a statement uttered by the Trompsburg-based Kopanong Mayor, Xolani Tseletsele, that he suspected there was serious, gross mismanagement of funds by the previous regime in that municipality.

Also read: NCOP could rope in NPA over Free State municipalities' troubles

The province also features in the state capture report handed over to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. Entities such as the Free State Development Corporation (FDC) also appears in the report compiled by the commission.

In the report, amongst other statements, Zondo said: “The Commission traced the money that Mr X had received from Mr Thalente Myeni’s business to an R2 million payment from VNA Consulting. 124 VNA Consulting had been involved in a housing project in the Free State Province and had used some of the monies it received on that project to pay Mr Myeni’s business, Premier Attraction. So, the money appears to have originated from the Free State government’s coffers, been paid to VNA Consulting, then to Mr Myeni’s business “Premier Attraction”, then to Mr X’s company’s bank account, and then, on instruction by Ms Myeni, into the bank account for the Jacob Zuma Foundation.”

OFM News