Central SA
Matjhabeng sewerage woes in spotlight as Ramaphosa visits─── LUCKY NKUYANE 11:19 Wed, 05 Oct 2022
The service delivery woes, besieging the Welkom-based Matjhabeng Local Municipality in the Free State, will be under scrutiny this weekend during a visit by the ANC President and the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.
The ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) has revealed that Ramaphosa will be visiting Thabong on 9 October 2022 for the launch of the Letsema Cleaning Campaign.
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The IPC spokesperson, Oupa Khoabane, says as part of the party’s social compact with the people, Ramaphosa will engage local volunteers, communities and a broad spectrum of stakeholders on service delivery. Ramaphosa's visit to the Free State comes after the IPC announced that it failed to prepare and hold its much-anticipated party elective conference last week, as it was expected. 
“The IPC also applauds the efforts by the Matjhabeng Municipality with its recent economic summit aimed at reimagining the city’s economic vision in order to expand the frontiers of a better life for its citizens. The IPC calls on the provincial government to implement similar bold initiatives in the Xhariep region to promote sustainable economic development,” Khoabane says.
The municipality lately came under heavy criticism from opposition parties, including irate residents, for a lack of failure to deliver basic services. Opposition parties and residents raised numerous concerns about the alleged appalling sewage spillage across the area.
Ramaphosa’s last visit, during the launch of the Letsama campaign in Mangaung, included the handing over of a house by the Free State Premier, Sisi Ntombela, to a child-headed household, which includes one sister and two brothers.
ALSO READ: Ramaphosa arrives in Bloemfontein for follow-up visit
This later placed the premier, among others, in hot water with the opposition parties. The DA leader in the province and a member of the Provincial Legislature, Roy Jankielsohn, during a media briefing held at the party’s headquarters in Bloemfontein earlier this year, alleged that the ANC had used the government resources, in turn conflating party issues with the government.
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However, the aspersions were later dispelled by Premier Ntombela.
