Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has promised Mangaung residents the party will bring in a mayor that will have the interests of the people at heart and work to improve service delivery in the city. He said this on the second and final day of his campaign mission in the Free State for the local government elections set for November 1. “We are going to elect a new mayor that is going to work for the people of Mangaung,” said Ramaphosa. He acknowledged the poor service delivery in Mangaung but was quick to point out that divisions in the…

Staff Reporter The Free State Legislature has appointed Mapitja Joseph Machaka as its new secretary with immediate effect. A statement issued on Monday by Legislature spokesperson Life Mokone said Machaka, who has been acting in that position, assumed the substantive role starting today. According to the statement, Speaker of the Legislature Ntombizanele Sifuba said Machaka emerged as the best candidate following a rigorous interview process. “This is where a decision was made that Mr Mapitja Joseph Machaka is fit and proper to be appointed and serve as the secretary to the Legislature,” Sifuba said. Machaka started working at the Free…

Organisers of the Mangaung shutdown which brought Bloemfontein to a complete standstill in May over service delivery and administrative issues in the city, the Mangaung Concerned Community (MCC), say they are not happy with the way the Free State capital has addressed their demands because there seems to be a deliberate ploy to derail all efforts to bring better service delivery and management to the city. MCC spokesperson Themba Zweni told The Free Stater they want to see a marked improvement in administration and municipal finances in the coming five years. Excerpts: The MCC had a detailed list of demands…

Staff Reporter ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to the people of QwaQwa in eastern Free State to vote for the party in the forthcoming local government elections so that they could root out corruption and hire qualified staff in a bid to improve service delivery. Ramaphosa said he was aware that people in the area were not happy with the level and quality of services received, particularly the provision of water and sanitation, electricity as well as free government houses which were last built in 1999 in Harrismith and neighbouring towns. “Many of our municipalities are not serving our…

Staff Reporter Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has urged his supporters in the Free State not to subject themselves to continued poverty and unemployment by voting for the ruling ANC in the forthcoming local government elections. He said this during marathon community meetings in Senekal, Bethlehem and QwaQwa on Saturday. The opposition leader also told the supporters to occupy prime land in the more affluent areas so that they can get services faster unlike the current situation in most townships in the country. “The power is in your hands,” said Malema during a community meeting in Senekal in…

Staff Reporter A 67-year-old woman is facing murder charges after she allegedly hit her 63-year-old landlord over the head with a glass plate, leading to his death, while they were fighting over unpaid rent. According to the police, the incident happened at about 8.30pm on Wednesday in the suburb of Navalsig in Bloemfontein. It is alleged that the tenant was sitting with the landlord’s wife on the balcony of the rented house when the now deceased landlord arrived, demanding payment and threatening to cut the tenant’s electricity. Free State police spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said a scuffle ensued as the…

In an interesting court case, an owner sued the body corporate for losses because the insurance would not pay for the cost of fire damage to a unit in a complex. The basis for non-payment was that the unit did not have a valid certificate of compliance (COC) for the electrical connections. While this was a commercial building it would equally apply to a residential property. In this case, the owner claimed that the body corporate had failed to insure the building in terms of the law, which they are obliged to do. The body corporate had insured the building…

Investors are usually attracted to municipalities with good and efficient services including the provision of water, sanitation, electricity and well-maintained roads. When Free State residents go to the polls for the local government elections on November 1, they will be looking closely at how their municipalities have served them over the years and what they would like to see happening in the coming five years. Central University of Technology (CUT) senior economics lecturer Mgcinazwe Zwane says local government is responsible for creating an enabling environment for business, among others. He says the ANC, which has controlled most Free State municipalities…

Ex-president Jacob Zuma on Thursday lashed South Africa’s judiciary but urged voters to back the ruling ANC in local government elections in his first public address since gaining parole from a prison term last month. Zuma, whose whereabouts are unclear, made an appearance by video link after several thousand supporters gathered for a “welcome back” prayer in the eastern port city of Durban. “Today we are a state governed by those who know what it is like to be oppressed and denied fundamental human rights,” said Zuma, a former apartheid fighter. “It is this state that has imprisoned me for…

Staff Reporter Free State rapper Nalzeey has released her latest hip-hop single called Khayalam. In the song, Nalzeey, whose real name is Naledi Keke Antoinette Mofokeng, is pouring out her heart and soul talking about losing her loved ones. “I lost my grandfather in 2016, my uncle in 2017, my other uncle in 2018 and my grandma the same year in December,” says Nalzeey in a statement released by her publicist. “I didn’t get a chance to heal because everything happened so fast in a short period. “It was a tough situation for me because I had to be strong…