The Free State municipality owes the water board over R500 million and residents of this municipality have been subjected to 30% water restrictions.

ALSO READ: Kopanong Local Municipality in debt

According to the waterboard's Executive: Operations and Maintenance, Maruping Rapudungoane, the entity met with the municipality last week and the payment issues were discussed. He said it was agreed that a payment plan will be sent to Bloem Water for consideration and approval. 

Rapudungoane, however, said water has not been restored to full capacity yet. 

Last week, during an address to Members of Parliament (MPs) at the National Assembly (NA), in a question and answer session, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said officials met with Bloem Water over the water-shedding at the local municipality.

Mashatile said the 2021 state of local government report identified the municipality as a service delivery hotspot and a dysfunctional municipality.

He said the situation in these municipalities calls for an urgent intervention by all spheres of government. He says this will be in line with the practical illustration of the district development model. Mashatile told members of the National Assembly during the question and answer session that there needs to be improved service delivery at the local government level.

ALSO READ: Kopanong a dysfunctional municipality – DP Paul Mashatile

The debt to Bloem Water has gradually increased. In 2020 the municipality owed Bloem Water over R300 million. The debt grew in 2021 to over R400 million and in 2022, the debt further increased to over R500 million.

According to the DA's councillor in Kopanong, Richard van Wyk, the municipality owes Bloem Water R600 million. He says this even led to the disruption of service delivery in that ailing municipality.   

In a statement, Van Wyk said the municipality owes Bloem Water R597 million and failure to meet payments will result in disrupted operations.

"For example, the local clinic has no reliable water supply, and the pump that should be transferring water into the clinic is damaged due to a lack of maintenance and vandalism of the infrastructure. The lack of water, load-shedding, and mismanagement of the municipality have led to the denial of the basic human rights of the community.

The DA in the municipality is concerned about the neglect, lack of maintenance, and destruction of infrastructure, which has left the community bearing the brunt of the municipality's and local clinic's collapse.

"As government health institutions are having difficulty providing health care to large municipalities, so too are smaller communities being denied the fundamental human right to safe drinking water and adequate health care," Van Wyk added.

In October 2021, the DA's Karabo Khakhau accompanied by her party members laid a complaint against the cash-strapped municipality which is struggling to pay for its services such as water, and also the salaries of its employees for two months and counting, despite constant promises.

ALSO READ: Cash-strapped FS municipality reported to SAHRC

In July 2022, the South African Human Rights' Free State-based commission told OFM News that the probe into the alleged water crisis at the cash-strapped municipality continued months after a complaint was lodged with the human rights body.

ALSO READ: Free State HRC still probing troubled municipality

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