The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Free State has learned with profound indignation and moral outrage of plans by the ANC’s provincial leadership and compromised officials to reinstate the disgraced former Matjhabeng Local Municipality Mayor, Councillor Thanduxolo David Khalipha, and to unlawfully reward him with six months’ retrospective salary—a grotesque insult to the workers, residents, and principles of justice in Matjhabeng.
This brazen act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), which explicitly prohibits the misuse of public funds to compensate individuals for work not performed. COSATU is of the firm view that any Council member, official, or political actor who facilitates this reinstatement or approves these payments will be complicit in the unconscionable theft of municipal resources, diverting critical funds meant for service delivery, infrastructure, and workers’ wages to enrich a man whose legacy is one of corruption, violence, and betrayal.
Khalipha’s reinstatement would not only reward criminality but deepen the municipality’s existential crisis. His tenure was a masterclass in abuse of power, marked by his conviction in the Odendaalsrus Magistrate’s Court for assaulting his own bodyguards—a crime that laid bare his contempt for human dignity and the rule of law. Under his leadership, the municipality’s finances were gutted through reckless decisions such as the procurement of a defunct second-hand vehicle fleet, which squandered millions of rands while leaving residents without basic services like water, electricity, and waste management.
Equally alarming are unresolved allegations of a clandestine “rogue unit” allegedly established under his authority, alongside the disappearance of municipal firearms—a scandal that raises grave concerns about public safety, covert operations, and the potential militarisation of local governance. Who authorised this unit? Who financed it? For what purpose was it created? The people of Matjhabeng demand answers, not the ANC’s deafening silence.
Khalipha’s defiance of democratic norms further disqualifies him from office. He ignored directives from the ANC’s Provincial Executive Committee to step aside, instead illegally appointing an acting mayor in violation of Section 56 of the Municipal Structures Act—a move that exposed his disdain for accountability. Now, ANC provincial leaders seek to not only reinstate him but also retroactively legitimise his six-month absence, demanding the unlawful restoration of his salary, bodyguards, and mayoral privileges.
This shameless political interference undermines a lawful council resolution declaring him absent without leave and insults workers like Maria, a municipal cleaner and South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) member, who endured months of unpaid wages during the union’s legal strike against Khalipha’s maladministration. While Khalipha’s allies plot his return, Maria’s children go to bed hungry, her dignity trampled by leaders who prioritise a convicted absentee over her survival.
The ANC’s complicity extends to its deliberate failure to act on the findings of the COGTA-appointed investigative team tasked with probing the municipality’s collapse. To date, this investigation remains shrouded in secrecy, shielding those responsible for the looting of public funds. Meanwhile, the Matjhabeng Council’s principled resistance to outsourcing its powers—by appointing its own acting Mayor and rejecting Khalipha’s illegitimate authority—has been met with threats and coercion from ANC provincial officials. These actions undermine democratic governance, erode municipal accountability, and foster a culture of impunity that threatens to annihilate the very foundation of local government in the Free State.
SAMWU’s three-month legal strike laid bare the rot festering under Khalipha’s rule. Workers raised legitimate grievances over fraudulent tenders, unpaid wages, and collapsing services, only to be met with disdain from ANC leaders who prioritised protecting Khalipha over addressing their suffering. During the strike, COGTA was called upon to appoint investigators to probe the procurement of the second-hand fleet that crippled the municipality financially. Yet, to date, the investigative team has failed to provide clarity or accountability, leaving residents to wonder: Who is being protected? Why has justice been deferred?
COSATU applauds the Free State Provincial EXCO for invoking Section 139 of the Constitution to implement a Financial Recovery Plan—a critical step toward rescuing Matjhabeng from financial oblivion. However, reinstating Khalipha would sabotage this intervention, entrenching the very corruption and mismanagement that necessitated it. It would signal that political loyalty trumps accountability, justice, and the needs of ordinary citizens. Allowing this reinstatement to proceed would not only compromise the integrity of governance in Matjhabeng but set a dangerous precedent for municipalities nationwide, effectively granting corrupt officials a blank cheque to act with impunity.
The Federation issues an unequivocal warning: Should the ANC proceed with this reckless reinstatement, COSATU and SAMWU will mobilise the masses. We will demand immediate payment of workers’ unpaid strike wages – funds withheld while the ANC prioritises reimbursing a convicted absentee. Our members, who have borne the brunt of Khalipha’s misrule, will not stand idly by as political elites divert resources meant for service delivery to line the pockets of those who orchestrated this municipality’s collapse.
To the ANC: This is a moment of moral reckoning. You stand at a crossroads: you must choose accountability over complicity, and justice over corruption. Stand with the workers and residents of Matjhabeng—not with a man who has robbed them of their dignity, services, and future. Reject the tyranny of political patronage and uphold the rule of law, for governance built on impunity is no governance at all.
If you fail to act in the best interests of the community, prepare for an unprecedented wave of resistance from those who refuse to be governed by lawlessness. To reinstate Khalipha is to institutionalise theft, and to pay him for six months of dereliction is to spit in the face of justice. The people of Matjhabeng will not tolerate this betrayal—and neither will we as workers and residents.
This is not merely a political battle – it is a fight for the soul of Matjhabeng. It is about the livelihoods of workers like Thabo, a wastewater technician who repairs broken sewer pipes without protective gear, and Lerato, a refuse worker who cannot collect waste from residents of Matjhabeng because of continuous breakdown in her vehicle. It is about the delivery of essential services to communities drowning in neglect. It is about the preservation of democratic governance itself.
COSATU and its affiliate SAMWU will not relent. We will fight tirelessly, using every tool at our disposal, until justice prevails. Together, we will ensure that those who have failed the people of Matjhabeng are held accountable. Together, we will restore dignity to this municipality.
Issued by COSATU Free State
For enquiries, please contact Tiisetso Mahlatsi, COSATU Free State Provincial Secretary on 051 447 5499 or 079 152 9648