The residents of Matjhabeng in the middle of the Free State goldfields reflect the dilemmas facing many African National Congress voters.
While the local council is wracked by mismanagement and corruption, residents support the value of child grants and feeding schemes delivered by the province. And, while they led violent protests against the council last year, this year many will again vote ANC.
The municipality, encompassing Welkom, Odendaalsrus and Hennenman, has been dogged by tender irregularities and has been placed under the national government’s Project Consolidate an initiative to help struggling municipalities.
A new KPMG report released this week highlights a number of tender irregularities in the municipality that implicate the former acting municipal manager, now chief financial officer, Nkrumah Pitso.
Mayor Serake Leeuw has referred the matter to the Scorpions but is disappointed that the report does not “go far enough”. An audit report from PricewaterhouseCoopers regarding a controversial electricity tender is expected at the end of the month.
In Hennenman, a library and council building was set alight during municipal protests last year. “Yes, we are unhappy. There are no jobs here. And we are mad at the council for the bad promises they made,” says Andries Lekoata, who lost his job when one of the mines in Welkom shut down. “But the new government has improved our lives. There are the child grants and the feeding schemes at school. And who else should we vote for?” he asked.
In 1989 the economy of the town went downhill, after gold mines were closed in the area and thousands of jobs were lost.
One of the biggest challenges for the municipality has been to move away from its dependence on mining. In 2001