Rob Hersov: The Mafube template - saving SA one municipality at a time

Key topics:Community-led model revives Mafube amid ANC governance failuresCourts condemn municipality over service collapse and financesMafube First offers a national blueprint for local renewal.By Rob Hersov*.Mafube means “new dawn” in Sesotho. And in the Eastern Free State, in the towns of Frankfort, Villiers, Tweeling and Cornelia, that is exactly what is beginning to happen. Not because Pretoria suddenly discovered competence. Not because the ANC woke up one morning and decided to serve the people. But because farmers, businesspeople, community leaders, and ordinary residents decided that enough was enough. They stopped waiting for permission to survive.This is the story South Africa needs to hear. Mafube First, the Mafube Business Forum, local farmers, Rural Maintenance, and the FF Plus are showing us a practical, lawful, community-driven model for rescuing a collapsed municipality. It is not theory. It is not another talk shop. It is not another promise from a corrupt ANC politician. It is citizens doing the job the ANC has failed to do..Read more:.Jonathan Katzenellenbogen: ANC's quandry over massive municipal debt hole.The background is brutal. Mafube Local Municipality has been under provincial intervention since 2017, yet service delivery continued to collapse. Public records describe water shortages, broken sewage systems, potholes, refuse failures, billing chaos and official bankruptcy.The municipality’s own area is agriculturally vital. Frankfort is a regional service hub, Villiers sits on the N3 (close to the N1) and the Vaal River, and the district produces maize, sunflower, wheat, grain, meat and dairy.In other words, this is productive South Africa being strangled by failed government. Strangled by ANC incompetence and corruption.The courts have already said what every resident knows. In 2022, the Free State High Court declared that Mafube and related local respondents were in breach of their constitutional and statutory obligations to residents.In 2025, a full bench again intervened, declaring non-compliance with previous court orders and directing the state to finalise and implement a financial recovery plan, stop sewage pollution of the Vaal and Wilge Rivers, implement emergency wastewater measures and report back to court under oath.This is not opposition propaganda. This is not Rob Hersov ranting against the ANC. This is the public court record.Even more damning, in January 2025 the High Court ordered Mafube Municipality, its municipal manager, CFO, executive mayor and administrator to pay R14.7 million plus interest to the Municipal Workers’ Retirement Fund for unpaid retirement contributions..Read more:.Mailbox: ANC’s legacy – Harvesting failure, not hope.The judgment records that money had been deducted from workers but not paid over. The court described the municipality as a “faceless and untouchable perpetrator” and said its conduct caused a “malfunction of the rule of law.”So, what did the community do? It organised. The Mafube Business Forum was formed by farmers, businesspeople, professionals and community members. It went to court. It documented failures. It built a paper trail. It pushed for a lawful model where the community helps restore capacity without pretending to “take over” the municipality. .The 2020 Mafube Stakeholders Compact is the blueprint. It proposed a ring-fenced revenue account, creditor engagement, conditional amnesty to restore payment culture, measurable service-delivery objectives, an oversight committee, and finance, operations and communications committees. That is not rebellion. That is responsible citizenship.The farmers then put money where their mouths were. Through organised agriculture, a voluntary R18 per hectare annual levy was created to fund services such as roads and safety. Approximately R7 million per year was raised, with about 90% of farmers participating.This is the key lesson: when people see real services, they pay. When money is stolen, wasted or swallowed by politics, they stop.The electricity story proves the point. Rural Maintenance Free State has managed Mafube’s electricity distribution since 2012 and, according to reporting, has invested heavily in infrastructure, improved reliability and supported solar generation around Frankfort.The community-backed solar effort has been described as a model that could eventually bring load-shedding relief to all four Mafube towns.But instead of embracing success, state actors and bureaucratic interests have repeatedly tried to block, frustrate or control it.That tells us everything about the ANC model - failure must be protected because success exposes it.Now comes Mafube First. Hans Pretorius and Johnny Mokoena describe it as “a black initiative with white support.”That phrase matters. It destroys the lie that community self-rescue is racial, right-wing, or anti-democratic. It is the opposite. It is constitutional. It is non-racial. It is local. It says: black and white residents are tired of sewage in the streets, dry taps, broken roads, and corrupt politics. They want competent local government, and they are prepared to build it..Read more:.Harber’s dismissive response mirrors ANC’s mishandling of legitimate issues.The FF Plus has also helped expose the ongoing collapse, including recent warnings that Mafube residents were left without reliable water for weeks while provincial intervention failed again.This matters because South Africa needs political parties that back community competence, not parties that protect ANC cadre failure.Mafube is not just a local story. It is a national template. Document the collapse. Organise the community. Use the courts. Ring-fence the money. Bring in expertise. Fix one function at a time. Build non-racial local coalitions. Contest power where necessary. Repeat everywhere.South Africa will not be saved from the Union Buildings down. It will be saved from the ground up: one ward, one town, one municipality at a time. Mafube is the new dawn. Now we must make sure the whole country sees it..*Rob Hersov, South African businessman and patriot.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

Rob Hersov: The Mafube template - saving SA one municipality at a time

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