Matjhabeng Local Municipality is a local government serving an administrative area in the Lejweleputswa District of the Free State in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. The municipality services

Welkom Welkom () is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about northeast of Bloemfontein which is the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela and Matjhabeng. The cit ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

, Odendaalsrus and Allanridge. The name is a

Sesotho Sotho () or Sesotho () or Southern Sotho is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho–Tswana ("S.30") group, spoken primarily by the Basotho in Lesotho, where it is the national and official language; South Africa (particularly the Free ...

word meaning "where nations meet". It is derived from the migrant labour system where people from various countries like

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked as an enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the highest mountains in Southern Africa. It has an area of over and has a populatio ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

, etc. meet to work in the mines of the Goldfields.

Reported corruption

In 2011 the municipality came into the news as one of the worst examples of the widespread corruption under the ANC. In about four years about R2bn went missing. An enquiry led by the MEC Mosebenzi Zwane blamed the losses on the municipal manager Ben Malakoane and his predecessor Thabo Pietersen. Zwane's report slated Malakoane as "grossly negligent", "undermining the rule of law" and engaging in contracts "without due process", but premier

Ace Magashule Elias Sekgobelo "Ace" Magashule (born 3 November 1959) is a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who was Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) until his suspension on 3 May 2021. He served as the Premier ...

referred to the duo as his "comrades". In 2021 five officials of the municipality were arrested by the

Hawks Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. This subfa ...

after over R1 million of municipal funds was allegedly misspent. One of the accused was involved in appointing the remaining accused as municipal officials.

Socioeconomic issues

The municipality experiences high unemployment which was exacerbated by the

covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. As of 2021, about 150,000 adults are unemployed. Some 10 gold mines closed their shafts, and suppliers of these mines closed shop. Crime has increased in its towns and townships, especially in Meloding, Virginia,

Thabong Thabong (meaning 'place of happiness' in Southern Sotho) is the second largest township after Botshabelo in the Free State province in South Africa. The township was established during the years of segregation of black people as well as the town ...

and Welkom. The reported crimes include theft and vandalism of municipal property and infrastructure, besides illegal mining by zama zamas, costly cable theft, theft of fencing material and vandalism of cemeteries.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of in the goldfields of the central Free State, north of

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape ...

and south of Kroonstad. According to the 2011 census it has a population of 406,461 people in 123,195 households. Of this population, 88% describe themselves as "

Black African Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often ...

", 10% as "

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

", and 2% as "

Coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. Sout ...

". The first language of 64% of the population is Sotho, while 12% speak Xhosa, 12% speak

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...

and 4% speak English. In the western part of the municipality there is a string of mining towns that runs from northwest to southeast: Allanridge (pop. 19,337), Odendaalsrus (pop. 63,743),

(pop. 211,011) and

(pop. 66,208). Further to the east are the agricultural towns of Hennenman (pop. 24,355) and Ventersburg (pop. 11,260).

Politics

The municipal council consists of seventy-two members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Thirty-six councillors are elected by

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in thirty-six wards, while the remaining thirty-six are chosen from

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

s so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 3 August 2016 the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) won a majority of forty-six seats in the council. The following table shows the results of the election. In a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...

held on 23 August 2017, a ward previously held by a DA councillor was won by the candidate from the United Front of Civics. DA won the ward back in another by-election held on 11 November 2020. The 2016 council composition was thus restored.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 27, 58, S, 26, 44, E, region:ZA-FS_type:adm2nd_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Local municipalities of the Lejweleputswa District Municipality