Please find attached soundbite in Afrikaans by Gerhard Strydom.
Please find attached soundbite in English by Gerhard Strydom.
- Basic municipal services disrupted by repeated management failures in the Infrastructure Directorate.
- Fuel card delays and expired vehicle licence discs left sewer response teams unable to operate.
- DA calls for an independent investigation into the repeated operational failures.
Yet another management failure has brought essential service delivery in the City of Matlosana to a standstill, leaving residents to suffer the consequences.
Since 31 July 2026, critical municipal services have been severely disrupted following the municipality’s transition to a new fuel card system. Although instructions were reportedly issued on 28 July to distribute the fuel cards before the system came into effect on 1 August, these instructions were allegedly not implemented by the Director of Infrastructure.
The result was entirely avoidable. Municipal vehicles were unable to refuel, service delivery ground to a halt, and sewer overflows were left unattended, allowing raw sewage to flow through residential areas and creating serious public health risks.
While the fuel card issue was reportedly resolved on 4 August, residents received little relief. The following day it emerged that licence discs for vehicles assigned to the sewer section had expired and had not been renewed in time, once again preventing response teams from attending to service delivery complaints.
These are not isolated administrative errors. They point to a worrying pattern of poor planning, weak management and a lack of accountability within one of the municipality’s most critical departments.
This concern is reinforced by the Director of Infrastructure’s own performance record. Council reports indicate that the Directorate achieved only 26% of its performance targets during the first quarter and 34% during the second quarter of the current financial year. These repeated operational failures are consistent with a department that is failing to perform its core functions.
It is particularly concerning that this is the same Director who was appointed as Acting Municipal Manager after Council voted to suspend the Municipal Manager, a suspension that was later found to be unlawful.
Residents cannot continue paying the price for management failures while sewer spills, infrastructure breakdowns and service interruptions become increasingly common.
The DA therefore calls for an independent investigation into the repeated operational failures within the Infrastructure Directorate. Should negligence or misconduct be established, those responsible must be held accountable through appropriate disciplinary action.
Matlosana residents deserve a municipality where senior officials are appointed on competence, held accountable for performance, and focused on delivering reliable basic services and not one where repeated management failures continue to undermine service delivery and public confidence.