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.

Community Affairs Media statements | Media statements

AfriForum takes Msukaligwa Municipality to court over poor service delivery

ByAfriForum 08/10/202508/10/2025

AfriForum yesterday brought an application for a structural interdict in the Mpumalanga High Court in Mbombela (Nelspruit) to force the municipality and the province to fulfil their statutory duties in the Msukaligwa Local Municipality and restore service delivery to residents in the municipality. The application follows the municipality’s long-standing failure to deliver services in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution to residents of Ermelo and surrounding towns in this municipality.

Provincial intervention in terms of Section 139(5) of the Constitution has been enforced on the municipality since October 2018. AfriForum maintains that this intervention, however, is not producing sufficient results to restore service delivery here and that comprehensive intervention by the province has now become necessary.

The hearing of AfriForum’s application was postponed after the judge had to recuse himself from the case due to a conflict of interest. The case is expected to be heard in November.

In its court documents for the application of an interdict, the civil rights organisation argues that serious mismanagement and decay characterise the municipality. “Issues such as financial mismanagement and extensive poor service delivery have already led to serious decay in the municipality,” emphasises Hennie Bekker, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Mpumalanga Highveld. According to him, the lack of service delivery is evident, among other things, in the decay of the municipality’s road, power and sewerage networks, as well as the existence of extensive water pollution.

In letters to AfriForum, officials have dismissed the organisation’s findings as insignificant, despite AfriForum’s own investigation confirming the decline of municipal service delivery in the Msukaligwa Municipality.

“The municipality argues that AfriForum’s investigation is not an accurate reflection of service delivery in the towns concerned and that the organisation’s court application for the restoration of service delivery is unnecessary. It is also argued that residents’ dissatisfaction is unfounded, as service delivery has apparently improved in the past few years. However, the opposite is true and clearly visible in Ermelo and the surrounding towns,” concludes Bekker.