ALSO READ: Cash-strapped Kopanong to be put under administration

It’s understood that, as part of the intervention by the provincial government, the troubled municipality is placed under administration to ensure that it performs its obligatory duties. Furthermore, Premier Sisi Ntombela’s government has put wheels in motion to help the municipality pay its over 450 workers.

ALSO READ: Free State municipality yet to pay its workers

The intervention by the provincial government is led by the department of Cooperative Governance (Cogta) and the national government.

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It’s understood that workers will receive their salaries on Friday 18 November 2022. The department has since appointed the former spokesperson for the department, Zolile Lobe, to help the municipality steer the ship in the right direction following previous issues. Meanwhile, the mayor of the municipality, Xolani Tseletsele, says the municipality is dealing with internal issues and some of them have to do with the finances of the municipality.

"In terms of the state of the Kopanong Local Municipality, there are still a lot of issues that we are going through, particularly issues of service delivery that affect our communities and so on. But we have managed to engage the Provincial Government through the Office of the Premier, to assist us in paying salaries for workers and they have assisted us. 

"Today [Wednesday] there will be an Exco meeting that is going to clarify the type of intervention, particularly on financial resources but not only limited to that. There are also other internal issues that we are still busy with in order to repurpose the Kopanong Local Municipality - what should it be like for our communities? We are aware that workers are on strike and we are in solidarity with them. We share the same pain with them. It’s a pity that we find ourselves in a quagmire and we will go through that quagmire with them. We will deal with all the issues and the problems. There are no issues that we are going to deal with overnight. The problems which are there will not be dealt with overnight - it’s going to be a long journey but ours is to continue engaging with the workers, engage the unions and so on,” Tseletsele added.

Tseleletse was addressing journalists in Jagersfontein on Wednesday 16 November 2022, where the non-governmental and humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers was giving out food hampers to victims of the disaster of Sunday 11 September, when the local mine’s wall dam burst – releasing tons of sludge which destroyed homes and killed two people whilst a third person is still missing.

ALSO READ: Houses, cars swept away by strong stream of water in Free State town - WATCH

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