The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) is not surprised that the Auditor-General (AG) issued a qualified audit opinion to the Merafong Local Municipality (Carletonville, Fochville, Wedela) for the 2024/25 financial year.
Merafong’s financial and governance crisis is plainly evident.
The Municipality currently owes Rand Water and Eskom a combined R1,6 billion.
Due to repeated failure to honour repayment agreements, Rand Water reduced water supply by 40% over the past six months. This has left several high-lying areas with little or no water.
Eskom barely receives any monthly payments, resulting in daily power outages putting already fragile service delivery under even more strain.
Outdated infrastructure exacerbates the dire situation. Water losses of 34% were recorded in the past financial year, while electricity losses climbed to 48% due to illegal connections, vandalism and unmetered consumption.
Poor debt collection (only 51%) and an utter lack of political will to run the municipality successfully underscore the extent of maladministration.
The AG also noted unauthorised, irregular and fruitless or wasteful expenditure which needs to be addressed urgently.
Accountability enforcement is clearly absent and officials have to be held accountable.
Senior staff may no longer get away with poor decision-making without facing consequences.
The ANC has brought Merafong to its knees.
The only thing that can save it from utter ruin is a party such as the Freedom Front Plus – which always puts residents’ needs first while striving to ensure a functional municipality.
FF+ Manifesto on Digital transformation: Embracing digital technologies to improve services.
Buckshot
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”
BoomerBox
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is home to a variety of landscapes and biomes, including deserts, wetlands, bushveld, grasslands, mountains and subtropical forests.