AfriForum brings water to elderly resident after Matjhabeng’s promises run out
Residents of small towns regularly have to contend with service delivery failures, and one Welkom resident was subjected to the extreme consequences of these shortcomings for months. For 80-year-old Freda Strauss, turning on a hot-water tap had become little more than a distant dream. That was until AfriForum stepped in and installed a water tank and pressure pump at her home.
The Matjhabeng Local Municipality has been experiencing serious water supply problems for some time. Since December 2025, water at Strauss’s home had only been available between 03:00 and 05:00. For months, she had to wash in a small hand basin, and every Thursday she filled 26 bottles with water to use for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning floors and flushing toilets.
“No elderly person should have to wake up in the early hours of the morning to store water in bottles because a Municipality cannot provide a reliable service,” says Christa Ikking, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Highlands.
AfriForum Dienste, which has since July this year been providing residents of Welkom and surrounding areas with a practical solution to inadequate municipal service delivery, stepped in and installed the necessary water supply system at Strauss’s home.
“The first-time hot water came out of the taps, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. The Lord answered my prayers,” says Strauss.
“Every connection represents a household that is no longer completely vulnerable to a dry tap. Mrs Strauss’s story shows that the deterioration of service delivery is not measured only in millions of rands and percentages, but also in the dignity residents lose when they cannot bath, do laundry, prepare food or flush a toilet. Clean and reliable water is not a privilege, but a constitutional right,” Ikking adds.
Serious service delivery problems
Matjhabeng’s service delivery problems have persisted for the past 15 years, but water supply has deteriorated even further since 2019. A major water leak near the Mimosa Dam, which was reported in December 2019, continued for more than 1 200 days before it was eventually repaired. By 2023, Matjhabeng was losing approximately 56% of its water, and by March 2025 it was found that around 60% of the Municipality’s bulk water supply was being lost. This amounts to a loss of more than R480 million per year.
“While residents such as Strauss had to save every drop in bottles, the Municipality repeatedly undertook to address the problems but did little to resolve them. Although R4,2 billion has been allocated over five years to the sanitation programme, the project does not in itself provide a solution to the water problems,” says Ikking.
The Municipality was also taken to task in court when the Free State High Court ruled in October 2024 that Matjhabeng had failed to fulfil its constitutional obligations, including the provision of sustainable basic services and the promotion of a safe and healthy environment.
In addition, E. coli was found in the water at at least one water treatment plant last year, while several children fell ill this year after allegedly drinking contaminated water.
“It is unacceptable that residents are expected to endure this level of municipal deterioration and are then also expected to pay for it. AfriForum will continue to combat service delivery failures and hold municipalities accountable,” Ikking concludes.
Click here to find out more about AfriForum Dienste.
