Three administrations. Twelve years. R292 million gone. A Maserati. And a municipality that says there is no money.

Do You Remember What Klerksdorp Used to Be?

I want to ask you something.
Do you remember what Klerksdorp looked like?
Do you remember the CBD with shops and people and life? Do you remember when you could walk in without a worry in the world to collect your ID, your birth certificate, your documents? Do you remember clean streets, a working economy, a city where people wanted to stay and build a future?

Klerksdorp was a flourishing gold mining community. The economic heart of the North West. Gold flowed here. Businesses grew and burst at the seams. Families built lives here.
Look at it now.

Our CBD is a danger zone. Not an exaggeration. A literal danger zone. Residents hire private security companies to escort them when they need to collect official documents from government offices. You leave your phone or handbag in the car, and someone follows you with a knife at your back and says: “We know it is in the car. Open it.” This is not urban legend. This is our daily reality.

Our parks are dumping sites. Plants grow inside our potholes because the potholes are so old that nature has moved in. Our streets are dark. And we? We are tired. But are we tired enough? Fed up enough? Angry enough?

On 13 February 2026, the body of a ward councillor, Sello Molefi, was found on the pavement of Voortrekker Street with a stab wound to the neck. An elected representative. In our city centre. Dead. Even if he was not from the party I voted for, it makes one think.

Just outside our town, criminal syndicates have taken over abandoned mine shafts. Armed gangs. Human trafficking. Drugs. All underground. The Stilfontein crisis played out on our doorstep. Bodies lay in white bags alongside the road. A silent indictment against a government that knows, but does nothing.

The decay did not begin today. It began while we were busy with other things.

A Timeline of Failure: Twelve Years, Three Administrations
2013: Matlosana is placed under Section 139 administration for the first time. The reason: financial collapse, over R100 million in arrears owed to Eskom, and total service delivery failure. The council actively resisted the administrator. WHERE IS THAT MONEY?
2014: Full administration. The province assumes control.
2016: Matlosana exits administration. A new beginning, they said.
2017: R15 million in levies collected from residents of 56 residential complexes disappears between a property agency and the municipality. Owners who had paid their levies faithfully were left without water and electricity. They were forced to pay twice: once for the theft, and again to have their own services restored. The matter quietly disappeared. No conviction on public record. No headlines. Just silence. Even with deep research online, only one article from Netwerk24 could be found. They speak of R15 million, but this writer’s memory recalls something closer to R34 million. WHAT HAPPENED?
2018/2019: The Auditor-General finds that Matlosana has regressed to a qualified audit opinion. The municipality owes Eskom R1.3 billion. Irregular expenditure continues to climb. WHERE IS THAT MONEY?
2023/2024: An independent forensic investigation reveals R292 million in duplicate payments made to ghost service providers. Without invoices. Without proof of delivery. CFO Mercy Phetla drives a Maserati purchased with our tax money. The Hawks secure a preservation order on a Range Rover, a Mercedes-Benz, and that Maserati. IS THAT MONEY BACK IN OUR PUBLIC COFFERS?
October 2025: The Democratic Alliance formally warns that the Ellaton Water Pump Station is on the brink of collapse. The municipality ignores the warning. R35.5 million had already been spent on a tender to refurbish water pump stations in KOSH. Where did the money go? Where is the work? WHERE IS IT?
February 2026: Matlosana is placed under Section 139 administration for the third time in twelve years. The stated reason is identical to 2013. Word for word.
31 March 2026: The municipal manager who refused to reinstate the dismissed CFO is suspended. Part of the council protects the offender. Yes, this is the same old story and pattern. The honest official is punished.

April 2026: The Ellaton Water Pump Station fails completely. Half of Matlosana is left without water. Jouberton. Kanana. Khuma. Orkney. Stilfontein. All of them. On the same day that residents sit without electricity.
No water. No electricity. In 2026. In a city that was once the place to be.
✌ ✌ ✌ Three times under administration. Twelve years. Same municipality.
✌ ✌ ✌ Same people. Same consequences. For us.

While You Read This
When this was written last night, many residents had already been without electricity for three days.
Update: Electricity and water were restored by Thursday evening. But do not forget.
The fact that the lights are back on and the taps are running again changes nothing about what happened. It does not change the spoiled food. It does not change the days without water. It does not change the R35.5 million that disappeared. It does not change the three administrations. It does not change the Maserati.
They restore services just in time for you to forget. That is also part of the plan.

✌✌✌✌✌ DO NOT FORGET. ✌✌✌✌✌
Why does this keep happening? Because we stay quiet. When something goes wrong, everyone jumps on their phones, threatens, curses, condemns. But then things get restored at the last minute, and we get on with our lives. Meanwhile the mess piles up like a caravan smell that follows you everywhere, no matter how fast you walk.
Your silence is also a vote.

The money is there. It is simply not being used for you.

The Money Is There
Every time. Without exception, when people beg for repairs on WhatsApp groups and on Facebook, the continuous answer is: “There is no money.”
But there was money for a Maserati. There was money for R292 million in ghost payments. There was money for a property agency to walk away with R15 million. There was money for a R35.5 million tender that delivered nothing. There is money for the salaries of councillors who protect the offenders.
The money is there. It is simply not being used for you.

A Proposal: Accountability-Linked Budgeting
The idea is simple: if the municipality cannot or will not exercise sufficient oversight to prevent theft, it bears the liability. Every rand stolen under its watch must be matched rand-for-rand in direct service delivery spending to the affected community.
✌ Steal R15 million? R15 million appears on the infrastructure budget for roads and water.
✌ Allow R292 million to vanish? Build R292 million worth of infrastructure.
✌ Spend R35.5 million on a tender and the pump still fails? Account for every cent before the community, and make those funds immediately available for the stated repairs.
✌ Your CFO buys a Maserati with public funds? Repair our streets to the value of that Maserati.
Not in ten years. Not in the next election promise. Now.

You cannot on the one hand say “there is no money” and on the other hand allow millions to disappear. If the money is there to steal, the money is there to work.
Accountability has a price. And that price belongs to us.
This concept is not unreasonable. Related mechanisms already exist. The Municipal Finance Management Act already requires municipalities to recover money lost through mismanagement. It simply never happens in practice. The Special Investigating Unit can recover assets stolen through corruption. It happens sometimes, as in the Maserati case. But it goes back to the state coffers, not directly to service delivery.

Your Rights. Your Recourse. Your Weapons.

1. Submit a formal written complaint to the municipality. Address it to the Municipal Manager. Include your address, dates without services, damages suffered, spoiled food, additional costs incurred. Demand a written reference number. Deliver in person and obtain a signed receipt. Also email to: communications@klerksdorp.org (Make sure your read receipt function is activated.)
2. Lodge a complaint with NERSA. The National Energy Regulator regulates electricity supply. File online at www.nersa.org.za
3. Contact the Public Protector. www.publicprotector.org | Free call: 0800 112 040
4. Contact the South African Human Rights Commission. www.sahrc.org.za | 011 877 3600
5. Small Claims Court for damages under R20,000. No lawyer required. Document everything: photographs of spoiled food with date and time stamps, receipts for additional costs, screenshots of municipal updates acknowledging faults.
6. Collective action. Manong Badenhorst & Badenhorst Attorneys: info@mbbatt.co.za | AfriForum Klerksdorp: 081 392 2071 | Sakeliga: www.sakeliga.co.za
7. Register to vote. www.elections.org.za
   Remember: Jouberton, Kanana, Khuma, Stilfontein, Orkney, Flamwood, Wilkeville, Adamayview, Irenepark and every other area in the City of Matlosana has the same rights. This is everyone’s problem.

A Final Word
Klerksdorp deserves better. We, every resident, whether you worked underground or above ground, built this city. We can, or rather must, reclaim it. But first we must stop forgetting. Or perhaps, get angry enough.
Share this. Talk to your neighbours. Talk to your family. Show them the timeline. Show them the amounts. Show them what we have lost and who took it from us.

Silence is complicity. And we have been silent long enough.
Maryke van Rensburg is a digital marketing professional and civic advocate based in Klerksdorp, North West Province.

Matlosana #Klerksdorp #AccountabilityLinkedBudgeting #R292Million #ServiceDelivery #Section139 #CityReportSA #GenoegIsGenoeg