Latest news with #StateoftheMunicipalityAddress
The Citizen
01-07-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Midvaal SoMA highlights progress, challenges
MIDVAAL – The 2025 State of the Municipality Address (SoMA) delivered by Executive Mayor Peter Teixeira, under the theme 'Midvaal is home' painted a picture of progress, perseverance, and future ambitions as the municipality approaches the final year of its five-year term. During his delivery, the mayor emphasised the municipality's unwavering commitment to excellence, despite the economic and infrastructure challenges it continues to face. Teixeira beamed with pride as he noted Midvaal's 11th consecutive clean audit, a debt-free record with Eskom and Rand Water, and the numerous accolades received in 2024, including three Golden Awards from and five South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Awards. These achievements highlight culture of good governance and accountability. Despite declining revenue collection and infrastructure challenges, Midvaal has remained committed to community engagement through initiatives such as the Youth Summit, walking with the mayor, and social upliftment programmes including the Spread the Love campaign. The municipality also supports vulnerable residents via social relief packages and property rate rebates. Teixeira stated that public safety remains top priority, with millions invested in surveillance and community policing. 'The Fire Services team reached over 13 000 residents through outreach and safety programs and added a 12 000l tanker to its fleet. The Traffic Department introduced tech-driven law enforcement tools and collaborated with SAPS on crime prevention.' In Midvaal, Infrastructure upgrades continue, with R44 million allocated to roads and stormwater reiterated that major focus for MLM has been economic development, with the formation of the Midvaal Investment and Business Retention Committee. According to Teixeira, notable projects include the R370 million River Stone Mall and the R2 billion Heineken-Soufflet expansion. Victor Antezana, Director of Xportes International hailed Midvaal as an investment hub because of its growth potential. 'Midvaal has the same characteristics as Cape Town which has a booming property market.' He said that he invested his hard-earned money in this municipality which is at the beginning of a growth cycle. He predicted that the municipality is about to have explosive growth. Citing this as the reason for investing his hard-earned money in the municipality. Antezana further said that he was happy that Midvaal is not amongst the municipality's that are said to be crumbling in South Africa. He congratulated the MLM for its continued excellence. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
‘Communities suffer while municipalities are not held accountable'
Community members and political parties on Wednesday tried to urge the Ngwathe Local Municipality to not appeal to the court judgment for intervention, but to rather prioritise the well-being of the community when they gathered at the municipal building where Council was to make a decision on whether the municipality will appeal the court decision. However, according to court documents an application to the High Court for leave to appeal was filed this week. This follows Judge J.P. Daffue's ruling in favour of AfriForum on Friday, finding the Ngwathe Municipality not fulfilling its constitutional, legislative and regulatory obligations towards residents of Parys, Vredefort, Koppies, Heilbron and Edenville. Daffue ordered as part of a structural interdict that the municipal council must be dissolved and the Free State provincial government must intervene in the municipality's affairs. Speaking on the court ruling earlier this week, Dumisane Magagula, secretary of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), slammed Ngwathe's executive mayor, councillor Victoria de Beer-Mthombeni's defence that her administration inherited a mess, saying that although a legacy issue, it is the successor's entitlement. Magagula was clear that the former leadership cannot be blamed, while given the power and authority to bring change. He explained the aim of a Section 139 ruling as mainly to stabilise a municipality. He mentioned Ngwathe's failure to provide water and sanitation, and said the municipality had been mugged with maladministration and financial chaos, ending up in an over-estimated budget tabled at the State of the Municipality Address. Magagula said it is unfortunate that AfriForum ended up getting the ruling, while the provincial government should have acted earlier. 'Communities suffer while municipalities are not held accountable,' he added. He specifically referred to the budget tabled by Ngwathe, criticising councillors agreeing on a matter, even though it does not make sense and does not benefit the community. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
