Political parties in Bloemfontein agree with the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) leader Julius Malema on his stance about service delivery issues in Mangaung. In his oversight visit to Mangaung on Thursday 13 January 2022, Malema said that all political parties should put their differences aside and serve the residents.
This statement comes after he earlier stated that he received threats from some members of the ANC who said that they will prevent him from visiting Mangaung. “I was told, when I was coming here, that there are ANC people who will block us from seeing the sewage spillages. That would have been an act of stupidity because we are here to help. We are not here to say let there be a sewerage system for EFF members. We are saying there must be a sewerage system that is better for all, irrespective of political affiliation,” said Malema.
He further added that his visit to Bloemfontein pushed Mangaung officials to start working on the sewerage issues overnight. Malema also said he wants Mangaung to be restored as the City of Roses or flowers, rather than being the City of Faeces. Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the African National Congress’ (ANC) Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the Free State, Oupa Khoabane, and Democratic Alliance (DA) provincial chairperson, Werner Horn, concurred with Malema.
Khoabane said that there has to be cooperation from all sectors of society to overcome challenges of service delivery in Mangaung. He also acknowledged that issues regarding infrastructure need immediate attention and added that they can only overcome these problems through the cooperation of all affected parties. “It is a fact that infrastructure systems developed by government, only catered for a small section of our community. We agree that those old systems should be replaced because they don’t serve our communities adequately,” added Khoabane.
On comments by Malema, stating that Mangaung officials worked on the sewage spillage issues when they heard that he will be in town, Khoabane said that he couldn’t comment on the work scheduled by the municipality. He, however, expressed his appreciation for work that was done on the faulty sewerage. Horn said whilst he agrees with Malema’s suggestion, the ANC government has to move away from their historical manner of dismissing solutions offered by opposition parties.
“All communities in Mangaung are bearing the brunt of the poor level of service delivery by the metro. Any way in which these failures can be highlighted is good if it contributes to better services. The suggestion that all parties must work together to fix the service delivery crisis, turns a blind eye to the political realities in Mangaung where the ANC has clung to a majority in council after last year’s elections and therefore are in political control of service delivery,” concluded Horn.
Kekeletso Mosebetsi
