Free State residents without water while municipal officials bicker

Residents from Qholaqwhe village in Qwaqwa, east Free State, fetch water from a reservoir. Their taps have been dry for over a year. Photos: Tladi Moloi

• Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality resolved in February 2024 to close its own wholly-owned failing water entity, MAP Water, and reincorporate services under the municipality.
• MAP Water CEO Willie Lefora, who secured a court interdict against his suspension but was later served with a retrenchment notice, claims he is being punished for refusing to divert money to politicians.
• Lefora claims the water entity was also starved of funds to the tune of R570-million since 2013 and unable to do its job.
• Meanwhile, residents across the municipality face intermittent water supply and unaddressed sewage spills.

Across Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality, residents are facing water issues. Residents of Pereng, Qholaqhewe, Mabolela and Mphatlalatsane struggle with an intermittent supply, while people in Phuthaditjhaba, Clubview, Bluegumbosch and Tshiame complain of sewage spills that are never addressed.

On 28 February 2024, the council pinned the blame on its water entity, which it created in 2006 and it wholly owns – Maluti-a-Phofung Water (Pty) Ltd, better known as MAP Water.

It resolved to close the entity and reincorporate water and sanitation services under the municipality.

According to municipal spokesperson Thabo Kessah, “The Council found that the entity was no longer meeting its legal obligations as a registered company. It had been operating without a board of directors for years and this is a legal requirement. Secondly, its tax obligations with SARS were left to the municipality to deal with.”

In October 2025, MAP Water employees protested and blocked entry to the offices in Phuthaditjhaba.

Kessah says workers will be absorbed into the municipality.

In December 2024, the municipality notified MAP Water CEO Willie Lefora of their intention to suspend him.

Lefora then secured an order in the Bloemfontein High Court on 7 February 2025 interdicting the municipality from giving effect to proposed disciplinary action against him and suspending him.

However, he was served with a notice of precautionary suspension in March, and then a retrenchment notice in May.

Asked about Lefora, Kessah replied: “We cannot entertain questions on people not related to MAP or MAP Water. Otherwise, you’ll end up asking me about Brown Mogotsi and expect me to answer.”

Lefora, who insists that he remains CEO of the water entity, says the decision to get rid of him is punishment for his refusal to follow illegal instructions.

“Politicians wanted us [MAP Water’s directors] to steal money from our account, and we constantly refused to do that. They wanted me to invoice the municipality and direct some money to their pocket.

“After I refused to give out money, I received notice of intention to suspend [me], followed by the suspension letter,” he said.

Lefora says MAP Water has been starved of funds for years. In a letter Lefora sent to the municipality on 27 October 2025, he claimed the municipality had since 2013 short-changed the entity by R568-million.

Internal financial documents seen by GroundUp suggest the municipality paid MAP Water amounts lower than the amounts it invoiced. For example, in February and March 2023, MAP invoiced R13.3-million for each month in line with its service agreement, but it was only paid R7.7-million and R7.3-million, about R11-million short in those two months alone.

“Our infrastructure is old and we had a plan to replace some of the pipes,” Lefora told GroundUp. “But we could not do that because the parent municipality is not giving us what we always ask for. Areas … struggle with water for quite some time because we don’t have money.”

Councillor Alison Oates (DA) says MAP Water “is expected to operate on a shoestring”. But, she points out, it has not submitted financial reports to the Companies and Intellectuals Property Commission since 2016, as required by law, and this included a period when Lefora was a board member.

“I have been asking where those reports are and have been promised for months that they are forthcoming,” said Oates.

Both MAP Water and its parent municipality missed the 31 August deadline to submit financial statements to the Auditor-General’s Office, only submitting on 30 November and 6 December respectively.

Children watch a brave resident enter the Qholaqwhe reservoir to get water.

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