Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

It is time to pack up, AfriForum tells Ngwathe Council

Soundbite: Alta Pretorius (English)

Soundbite: Alta Pretorius (Afrikaans)

AfriForum dropped off cardboard boxes at the Ngwathe Local Municipality offices in Parys this morning in preparation for the “great trek” of Victoria de Beer, Mayor of the embattled municipality. This gesture follows the court ruling that was delivered in AfriForum’s favour in the High Court in Bloemfontein on 20 February, which determined that the court order of 20 June 2025 must be implemented immediately, irrespective of the municipality’s application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

In terms of the June 2025 order, the municipal council must be dissolved, and the provincial government must intervene in the municipality.

“We thought it a good idea to bring boxes for the big move, because it seems like De Beer and the rest of the council are in no hurry to start packing up their things to give way for the implementation of the court order. In the meantime, although service delivery here has long been substandard, they continue with one appeal after another, and this with taxpayers’ money,” explains Alta Pretorius, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Mooi River.

*Johann Swart, a resident of Parys, and AfriForum’s Jaco Grobbelaar and Alta Pretorius before the handover.*

The group of five people, including four residents of the town, who did the handover with Pretorius, were, however, given an icy reception at the municipal office and were chased away from the site. In a video recorded by Jaco Grobbelaar, AfriForum’s Regional Head for the central part of the country, municipal officials can be seen kicking the boxes away (see video at the bottom of this statement).

In the order delivered by Judge M. Opperman in February, it was made it clear that the “systemic failures” in this municipality had “resulted in the supply of contaminated water, recurring sewage spillages, financial insolvency and manifestly deficient governance”. Opperman stated that this situation required “urgent and decisive remediation”. He further emphasised that there was an obligation under the Constitution to intervene in circumstances such as these.

“The municipality has been in power since 2021 but has not been able to restore service delivery in Parys, Heilbron, Vredefort and the other towns in the Ngwathe Municipality in the past more than four years. De Beer and her council should now act in the interests of the residents, vacate their offices and give the province a chance to restore service delivery in collaboration with private organisations,” concludes Pretorius.

The municipality, meanwhile, maintains that it will appeal February’s ruling. AfriForum has, however, not yet received any confirmation thereof.