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.

AfriForum study shows 8 out of 10 Parys residents are dissatisfied with municipal service delivery

Soundbite: Alta Pretorius (English)

Soundbite: Alta Pretorius (Afrikaans)

A study conducted by AfriForum among more than 800 residents of Parys in May and June of this year shows that eight out of every ten respondents are dissatisfied with the services provided by the Ngwathe Local Municipality. According to the civil rights organisation, these results indicate a serious breach of trust between residents and the municipality.

These findings come only a month after a ruling delivered in the High Court in Bloemfontein on 20 June this year. The court ruled that the Municipal Council should be dissolved and the provincial government should intervene because the municipality is no longer meeting its constitutional, legal and administrative obligations towards its residents.

In spite of this decision and the residents’ clear dissatisfaction with the quality of services provided in the municipality, they have now applied for leave to appeal the ruling. This application will be heard on 12 August.

Service delivery in the municipality has, according to AfriForum’s opinion poll, now reached a low point. Satisfaction with the delivery of municipal services was measured in nine sections, namely parks and recreational facilities; traffic safety; streetlights; customer service at municipal offices; sewage and sanitation services; refuse collection; road maintenance; electricity supply (excluding load shedding); and water supply. AfriForum also sought the respondents’ opinions on their satisfaction with the current municipal leadership.

A total of 80,4% of respondents are dissatisfied to very dissatisfied with the municipality’s service delivery, while 6,4% of respondents are satisfied to very satisfied (only 1% of respondents are very satisfied). About 13,2% of respondents are neutral.

Road maintenance, water supply and electricity supply are the sections where residents reported the highest level of dissatisfaction, with 99,5%, 96,8% and 95,1% of respondents being dissatisfied with the delivery of these services, respectively. A total of 90% of respondents are also dissatisfied with the service delivery in terms of parks and recreational facilities in Parys. The only proverbial silver lining in the findings, although minor, is respondents’ satisfaction with the municipality’s refuse collection service – 37,9% of residents indicated that they were satisfied with this service, compared to 28,4% who were dissatisfied.

The results regarding respondents’ satisfaction with the municipality’s Municipal Manager, Dr Futhuli Mothamaha, and the Mayor, Victoria De Beer-Mthombeni, are overwhelmingly negative. Nearly 95% of respondents are dissatisfied with Mothamaha, and 80% believe he should be fired, while 95,1% believe that De Beer-Mthombeni should be removed from her position.

In addition to measuring respondents’ satisfaction with service delivery, the survey also investigated the incidence of water outages in this town. The survey reveals that 33,8% of respondents face daily water outages, and 49,5% encounter this issue multiple times a week. Statistics from the organisation Save Ngwathe confirms this crisis. According to their data, more than 33 300 water-related complaints have already been reported to the municipality in the first six months of the year. This amounts to more than 184 complaints per day.

“These results confirm what we have known for a long time – the Ngwathe Municipality is failing its constitutional obligation of delivering basic services to residents,” explains Schalk Burger, Chairperson of AfriForum’s Parys branch. Burger, however, maintains that the organisation will continue to apply pressure and investigate alternative solutions to improve the quality of life of the community.

According to Alta Pretorius, AfriForum’s District Coordinator in the Mooi River region, the municipality should focus its time and resources on service delivery instead of attempting to overturn the High Court’s ruling. “It is clear that the municipality does not have the interests of the residents at heart,” concludes Pretorius.

AfriForum’s Parys branch calls on the community to get involved and work together on solutions. The branch will use the results of the survey to plan further action and increase pressure on the municipality.

Join this dynamic branch today. Contact Schalk Burger (082 653 4281) for more information.

Note for editors:

The High Court’s ruling, delivered on 20 June 2025, follows years in which the Ngwathe Local Municipality was responsible for neglect, incompetence and decay that left the residents of Parys, Heilbron, Koppies and Vredefort, among others, without reliable municipal services. The decay was characterised by, among others, serious water shortages, sewage in the streets, dilapidated infrastructure and budgetary problems of millions of rand.

According to the court, the Free State Executive Council must do the following within the framework of Section 139(5)(a) of the Constitution:

draw up a recovery plan to restore services and meet debt obligations;
dissolve the Ngwathe Municipal Council and appoint an administrator; and
report to the court on the progress under oath every three months.

AfriForum’s legal team served a notice to oppose on 26 June. As part of the application for leave to appeal, the judge must determine whether another court will reach a different decision. If not, the High Court’s decision must be implemented. However, if the municipality’s application for leave to appeal is successful, the order will remain suspended until the application is heard at the Supreme Court of Appeal. In that case, AfriForum will consult its legal team to consider other options.