SASOLBURG – Free State Premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae convened a preparatory meeting on July 16, ahead of the portfolio committee visit around the province.
The portfolio committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will conduct an oversight visit throughout the Free State province on July 24.
Premier Letsoha-Mathae berated the state of municipalities that dark forces may have snuck into municipalities with the sole aim of stealing resources meant to uplift communities.
This, added Premier Letsoha-Mathae, has been aided and abetted by senior officials working in different municipalities.
“I would even go as far as to say, we have been infiltrated by criminal elements whose insatiable lust for money has blinded them to the lived realities of our people.
How else do you explain many of the incomplete projects in our province? The simple explanation is that many of us, dressed in suits, are heartless and driven by an absolute love for money. We appoint friends with absolutely no capacity to undertake major projects and they pocket the money, dump the project, and disappear,” said Premier Letsoha-Mathae.
She further warned that ignoring glaring challenges in municipalities will not help to resolve challenges affecting municipalities in the province.
“It will serve us no purpose and do us any good if we do not own up to our challenges and collectively figure out a way to urgently address our problems,” she said.
Premier Letsoha-Mathae further said some of the people at the helm of local government were so detached from government that the suffering of people does not bother them.
“Have we become so cold-hearted that not even the sight of children pushing wheelbarrows in the cold does not awaken our consciousness? Have we lost our morals that we care little about elderly men and women, batswadi ba rona, who are forced to part with their paltry social grant money to buy water?” she queried.
The premier sent a stern warning that the era of wrongdoing was over.
“Things are going to change. As the premier of the province, I demand change, but importantly, the people of the Free State demand change!”
