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The dysfunctionality of Free State local municipalities has been laid bare by the 215 service delivery protests over the last three years between 1 April 2020 to 30 November 2023.

The statistics supplied by the MEC for Community Safety, Roads and Transport, Ms Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae, to DA questions in the Free State Legislature indicate that a total of 69 of these protests were specifically related to issues around the delivery of water, a basic human right that is entrenched in our constitution. The replies also revealed that, during these protests, eight people were injured and damage to property to the value of R51 426 000,00 was incurred.

These protests drain the resources of the SAPS, who should be fighting crime. ANC politicians, who are responsible for the poor services, flee from areas in which protests take place. The SAPS are left with the responsibility of doing the dirty work of a failing democracy. It is a poor reflection on the governing party that our men and women in blue have become the face of government.

While the ANC-led government are vocal in other conflict areas of the world, the Free State is becoming a war zone. Deployed cadres continue to deny communities their basic human rights to regular and safe supplies of water in their houses, while raw sewage runs through yards, streets and into rivers. Households, schools, hospitals, clinics and businesses are victims of water-related sabotage and water tanker and construction mafias operating across the province.

While the water and other service delivery wars are fought between the SAPS and deprived communities, ANC politicians are vocal about similar deprivation and human rights abuses in other parts of the world.

Residents of the Free State must use the democratic system to oust the corrupt ANC cadres, and replace them with a governing party with a sound track record of clean governance and sound service delivery.

Issued by Roy Jankielsohn - DA Free State Premier Candidate