Ngwathe Municipality’s legal battle reaches its end after Constitutional Court ruling
The Ngwathe Local Municipality’s fight to appeal against a 2025 court order to dissolve the Municipal Council was dealt a final blow in the Constitutional Court today. The court this morning dismissed the Municipality’s application for leave to appeal with costs. AfriForum has thus achieved a significant final victory in its service delivery case against this Free State municipality and has succeeded for the first time in enforcing the dissolution of a local authority with a court order.
AfriForum considers the victory of critical importance, as this case can serve as a precedent in similar cases where the organisation is fighting poor service delivery in other municipalities.
The civil rights organisation filed an application with the Bloemfontein High Court in May 2024, requesting that the Ngwathe Municipality be placed under provincial administration due to a service delivery crisis. In December of that year the case was heard, and in June 2025, Judge J.P. Daffue delivered his judgment. He ruled that the Ngwathe Municipality was not fulfilling its constitutional, legal and administrative obligations towards the residents of Parys, Heilbron, Koppies and Vredefort, among others. He ordered the Municipal Council to be dissolved and the immediate intervention by the Free State provincial government. However, the Municipality has repeatedly tried to appeal this decision without success – first to the Supreme Court of Appeal and now to the Constitutional Court.
“Today’s Constitutional Court ruling is the final nail in the coffin of a municipality where service delivery has long since ceased. Years of systemic shortcomings in this municipality have led to the delivery of contaminated water, repeated sewage spills, financial insolvency and poor management. The court has made it clear on several occasions that urgent and decisive remediation is essential. After years of opposition and a legal battle that lasted more than a year, the Ngwathe Municipality must now finally give up the fight and make way for the recovery of Parys and other towns in this municipality,” explains Alta Pretorius, AfriForum’s Regional Coordinator for the Mooi River district.
Pretorius emphasises that the urgent restoration of the Ngwathe Municipality is in the interest of the residents. “I hope the Municipality will now admit defeat and allow competent people to take over. I also hope that the province will do what the court orders them to do. The residents of Ngwathe cannot take any more blows. They deserve a competent municipality that can deliver services.”
According to Schalk Burger, Chairperson of AfriForum’s Parys branch, Parys’ residents are delighted with the Constitutional Court’s decision. “It was a years-long struggle to get here, and we have braved serious opposition in the process. The residents of Parys, Vredefort and Koppies, among others, have paid the heavy price of poor service delivery and experienced it every day. But now the victory is even sweeter knowing that we can finally close this chapter and, as a community, can start rebuilding our towns together. Today, justice has truly triumphed.”
Burger thanks the residents of the Ngwathe Municipality for their trust in AfriForum to see this fight through. He also maintains that every role player and community member who was involved in collecting evidence for the case, took part in protest actions against poor service delivery and put pressure on the Municipality, has a huge stake in today’s victory.
