BLOEMFONTEIN — The Democratic Alliance (DA) has lodged criminal charges against municipal managers in three Free State municipalities, accusing them of serious failures in financial management, governance and service delivery, the party announced on 1 September.
Charges under the MFMA
DA parliamentary leader George Michalakis said the charges were submitted under Section 173(1) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), which the party says allows for criminal liability in cases involving gross financial negligence, material accounting irregularities and the submission of false or misleading information to the Auditor‑General.
"The Free State has been looted to its bones by the ANC," Michalakis said, according to the DA statement.
Michalakis described the MFMA as an "important mechanism for holding officials personally accountable for the management of public finances" and said the action formed part of a broader national campaign targeting municipal managers who, the DA alleges, have repeatedly failed to meet basic financial and governance standards.
Who has been targeted in the Free State?
The DA identified four municipal managers linked to its Free State action, and said six of the 10 officials it is targeting nationally are in the province. The two named in the party's Free State list are:
- Mojalefa Matlole — municipal manager of the Masilonyana Local Municipality. The DA alleges a decade of poor financial statements, repeated adverse audit outcomes, problems with drinking‑water quality, misuse of indigent grants and appointments of underqualified staff.
- Mokete Solomon Nhlapo — municipal manager of the Nketoana Local Municipality. The DA alleges weak financial controls that create opportunities for misconduct.
The DA said other municipal managers nationally are also being targeted, including in the Eastern Cape, North West and Western Cape, but did not list all names in its Free State announcement.
Allegations and public interest
The DA’s campaign focuses on the alleged failure of municipal managers to produce credible financial statements and to maintain sound internal controls — deficiencies that, if proven, have direct consequences for service delivery such as water quality, roads, and basic municipal administration.
For residents in affected towns, adverse audit outcomes and alleged mismanagement translate into continuing service delivery problems and limited municipal capacity to address community needs. The DA framed the criminal complaints as a tool to seek accountability where it believes governance has broken down.
| Municipality | Municipal manager | Allegations (as stated by DA) |
|---|---|---|
| Masilonyana | Mojalefa Matlole | Poor financial statements, repeated poor audit outcomes, water quality problems, misuse of indigent grants, unqualified appointments |
| Nketoana | Mokete Solomon Nhlapo | Insufficiently secured financial systems, risk of financial misconduct |
| Other Free State municipalities | Not publicly named in DA statement | Broad allegations of governance and financial failures |
What this means procedurally
Criminal charges under the MFMA can trigger SAPS investigations and, if there is evidence of criminal conduct, prosecutions. The DA has positioned the move as part of a strategy to hold individual municipal managers personally accountable rather than focusing only on party or institutional failure.
- Charges were laid on 1 September by DA parliamentary leadership, the party said.
- The MFMA provision cited targets serious financial negligence and misleading information to the Auditor‑General.
- The DA’s national campaign targets 10 municipal managers across nine municipalities, six of whom are reportedly in the Free State.
It remains to be seen how the SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority and other oversight bodies will respond to the complaints. Municipalities named in the DA statement had not issued immediate public responses at the time of the DA’s announcement.
Local impact and broader context
Across the Free State, many municipalities have struggled with governance and audit outcomes in recent years. Troubled financial management at local level affects service provision and can erode public confidence. Opposition parties frequently use criminal complaints as a mechanism to press for accountability; whether such complaints result in prosecutions depends on the strength of the evidence and the outcome of any official investigations.
Residents seeking clarity on the allegations or the status of municipal operations should consult their municipal offices and Auditor‑General reports, which provide publicly available assessments of financial statements and governance. Stakeholders such as councillors, municipal managers and provincial oversight bodies play a role in addressing the systemic issues the DA highlights.
The DA said its action is part of a stepped‑up accountability campaign and vowed further steps should investigations find evidence supporting the allegations.
