According to the Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke’s damning report on the Mangaung Metro Municipality, the municipality spent less than 2% of its infrastructure budget on repairs and maintenance. 

In April, the Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu, said 46% of water in the Metro is lost due to water pipe leakages and added that these water pipes have been neglected for years and not maintained or repaired.

ALSO READ: 'Mangaung loses 46% of its water due to leakages'

In March this year, at least 70% of the residents in the metro spent a week without drinkable water following the failure of a pipeline at the Maselspoort pipeline. Maluleke in her reports indicates that the metro has failed and did not have a plan to repair or maintain the infrastructure but only did so when damage was already done.

“Unmetered consumption, theft and a lack of maintenance resulted in average water losses of 49% and electricity distribution losses of 20%. Service delivery protests increased as residents grew increasingly dissatisfied with pothole-riddled roads, having to go for days without water, and refuse sometimes not being collected for weeks,” she adds.

She says despite the metro holding the public participation sessions where the needs of the community were received and planned for, many of the planned targets were not achieved because they were not prioritised and/or because of a lack of funding.

“Since projects were not completed, the communities’ needs were not addressed, which negatively affected their lives. We continued to identify and report material findings on compliance with legislation at all auditees, including in the area of procurement and contract management,” Maluleke further adds.

Tsakani previously told Members of Parliament (MPs) that three Free State municipalities are part of a group of six out of ten sampled municipalities that could not account for or keep track of where taxpayers' money went.

ALSO READ: Free State municipalities fail to trace taxpayers' money 

OFM News reported that eleven Free State municipalities had approached the provincial departments of Cooperative Governance (Cogta) and Treasury for a bailout after they failed to pay the salaries of workers for the month of May, and counting.

ALSO READ: Eleven Free State municipalities beg for bailout

Only six municipalities in the Free State managed to obtain unqualified opinions but with findings, and the rest of them obtained outstanding audits.

OFM News