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The Free State province is notorious for malfunctioning municipalities with poor service delivery issues, however, during his budget vote speech on Tuesday, 5 May 2026, in Kroonstad, the MEC for CoGTA Mr Saki Mokoena inspired confidence in residents that there are some improvements being witnessed municipalities.
Municipalities are central to local economic development as most business takes place in municipalities, depending on their upkeep, municipalities can either be attractive to investors or repulsive. President Cyril Ramaphosa said the year 2026 is about fixing local government, Mokoena re-iterated the same during his speech.
Delivering his 2026/2027 financial year budget of R483.541 million which represents a 6.2% increase from the R455.2 million of the 2025/26 financial year at Dr Cingo Secondary School in Kroonstad; Mokoena said Free State Local Government is now experiencing increased administrative and political stability which is a critical condition for sustained service delivery.
Though there is some stability in local government, the MEC said there are some challenges that the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) has to deal with to ensure that municipalities are competent to deliver basic services to citizens.
“This call is more relevant to the province as municipalities continue to confront disruptions on the provision of some basic services that are compounded by challenged bulk services infrastructure where sewer leakages, water interruptions are a common occurrence.
In response to these the government has adopted a hands-on intervention approach with specific focus on administrative capacity, service delivery infrastructure, revenue enhancement measures, improving Auditor General’s outcome and the general economic enhancement measures,” said MEC Saki Mokoena.
“We have also invoked Section 139 interventions in those areas where service delivery is compromised, and the local leadership is oblivious to the suffering inflicted upon our people. To date, we have invoked Section 1391b in Masilonyana, Nala, and Nketoana, where we have sent our teams with effective, decisive intervention powers.
The Mohokare Local Municipality, due to problematic conduct of councillors, qualifies for Section 1391b, the provincial government can never fold arms where communities are subjected to collapse in service delivery, including the provision of electricity.
The year 2026 marks the end of the current term of councils where the elections of municipal leadership are now set to take place on the 4th of November this year. Government is working together with IEC to prepare for these crucial elections,” he continued.
