During the weekend, Mxolisi Dukwana, the premier of the Free State, his Executive Council, and Councillor Lulama Titi-Odili checked on the state of service delivery in Caleb Motshabi and Phase 2.

The aim of the service delivery check is to examine the difficulties local communities experience and the best way for the provincial government to resolve them by cooperating closely with the municipality.

According to the spokesperson of the premier, Sello Dithebe, the premier has identified areas where services have to be provided and these services must be visible. Most importantly, ordinary members of the community must be involved.

The premier strongly believes the participation of citizens is very important so that people are not just passive recipients of services but get involved in such programmes.

“The premier is following up on his own commitment he made during the State of the Province Address earlier this year, that people must receive services on a sustainable basis so that we can encourage those that have the ability or the means to pay for services to do so – be it water, electricity, refuse removal, or rates and taxes.”

According to the premier, the Executive Council has decided to designate Fridays for community cleanup. He criticised the dismal condition of various towns throughout the province. The Exco would travel the entire province every Friday to make sure that issues with service delivery are resolved.

"Every Friday, we will leave the comfort of our offices, and interact with our communities to get a better understanding of their problems. We must serve with love and empathy for our people. It's unacceptable that our people live in these conditions, which expose them to a number of health hazards.

"We need to ensure that our people have access to basic services such as water and proper sanitation. I will be doing this programme every Friday to accelerate service delivery across the province," said Dukwana.

“There is a plan in place where officials are dedicated to attending to these issues.   This is an ongoing programme as this wasn’t a once-off publicity stunt,” said Dithebe.

Premier Dukwana visited a number of homes that are struggling and promised that their issues will receive the necessary attention.

During his outreach programme, the premier walked into an elderly women’s house which was flooded with water and the premier immediately made arrangements to have her evacuated and provided her with a place that was better for her and her health.

People are quite appreciative of the initiative and the Exco and their team will continue to ensure that the huge piles of trash and garbage will be removed from the community.

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