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.

Cadre deployment at the heart of the destruction of Free State towns: AfriForum demands intervention

Soundbite: Jaco Grobbelaar (English)

Soundbite: Jaco Grobbelaar (Afrikaans)

AfriForum maintains that the years of sustained cadre deployment in Free State municipalities have led to the destruction of towns such as Reitz, Lindley and numerous other towns in this province. The organisation, therefore, demands that the Free State Premier, MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae, and the Free State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) urgently intervene in the Nketoana Local Municipality and put an end to this destruction.

This demand follows in response to the recent shocking findings of a parliamentary oversight committee that exposed serious management and service delivery failures in the Nketoana Municipality. Reitz, Lindley, Petrus Steyn and Arlington are part of this municipality.

According to Jaco Grobbelaar, AfriForum’s Regional Head for the Central Region, the situation in the Nketoana Municipality is particularly dire, although several other towns in the province are also experiencing similar decline.

“Nketoana Municipality is now characterised by complete decline, excessively high debt, a collapse of basic service delivery and the plundering of municipal funds. These issues are the direct result of the ANC’s irresponsible cadre deployment policy that has over the years replaced competent management with political appointments. Expertise and integrity have therefore given way to party political loyalty and have therefore resulted in inevitable failures at the expense of all the Municipality’s residents,” explains Grobbelaar.

In its letter sent to Letsoha-Mathae and the Free State DSRTS on 23 April 2026, AfriForum demands urgent provincial intervention in the Nketoana Municipality in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution; the immediate dismissal of the Mayor, Mamiki Mokoena; accountability for financial mismanagement in the Municipality; and the stabilisation of the Municipality’s administrative and political leadership.

“The people of the Nketoana Municipality and the broader Free State are being left to their own devices, while incompetent and irresponsible leadership continues unabated here. This can no longer be tolerated,” Grobbelaar emphasises. “As long as cadre deployment is prioritised over merit, corruption will flourish and communities will suffer. AfriForum will not idly stand by and watch as our towns are being destroyed. We will continue to fight to save municipalities, protect taxpayers and ensure that communities receive the services they are entitled to and pay for.”

AfriForum calls on residents of the Nketoana Municipality to stand together against the destructive policy of cadre deployment and to sign the civil rights organisation’s petition against this policy here.

AfriForum Letter to FS Premier_23 April 2026 Download