Where rot starts below street level
● Andre van Niekerk says he’s battling to sell his five-bedroom house in Elandsrand, Brits, because “no-one wants to stay here”.
“Street lights are not working, the crime level is high and the [Madibeng] municipality just doesn’t care,” he said.
This week’s auditor-general report into local government finances was scathing about Madibeng municipality, whose attractions include Hartbeespoort Dam.
The municipality received a disclaimed audit opinion for the fourth consecutive year. The salaries of its finance department’s 105 employees cost it R33.6m in 2018/2019 — but it spent R35.4m more on consultants to do its books.
“Yet no value was realised due to a lack of proper record-keeping practices, which at times appeared deliberate in order to hide the extent of irregularities,” the report found. Madibeng, which lost R30m to the VBS Mutual Bank fraud, has been under administration since July last year.
About 5km from Elandsrand on decayed roads is the Brits CBD, where unemployed young men with brooms fill potholes.
In Letlhabile township, 20km away, unemployed graduate Herman Motsepe said though the water supply has improved slightly, the water is filthy and they aren’t guaranteed a consistent supply. “Sometimes we go for up to three days without water, with no explanation,” he said.
But the Bojanala district municipality, responsible for water provision, failed to submit its financials on time and that municipality is not included in the latest report.
The roads leading to Letlhabile are mere patches of tar where a road once was. Road users heading to the mall drive on the shoulder to avoid the potholes.
Tired of waiting for Madibeng municipality to fix potholes, Letlhakaneng residents rolled up their sleeves. Organiser Clement Khoza said people donated cement and labour, and fixed 6km of the road to town.
“We had lost hope in the municipality to fix them for us,” he said.
Madibeng administrator advocate Monnapula Motlogelwa said in 2017/2018 the municipality appointed a panel of companies to help with their books.
He said members of the auditor-general’s team were at the time “literally threatened and intimidated” when working on the municipality’s audit.
“The use of consultants has been reduced,” he said, adding that service delivery had improved and “consequence management is being implemented after many years of laissez-faire and unaccountability”.