The N1 town’s decade of decay — Beaufort West

If there were three things Elaine Wessels could fix in her suburb in Beaufort West it would be the gravel roads, streetlighting and the time it takes the municipality to respond to electricity and water complaints.

Wessels has lived in Rustdene for the past 35 years, in her late mother’s house. She lives with her five adult children, all of whom are unemployed. She works as a cleaner in a community work programme, a state initiative for otherwise unemployed residents. She turns 60 next year.

Van Niekerk Street, where she lives, and the surrounding streets have no streetlights. There is one distant high mast light, but Wessels said their area is dark at night.

Her toilet is in her yard. She said it is frequently blocked because of the old pipes.

“I find ways to fix it myself,” she said.

Her electricity box has not worked for months.

“I have reported it, many times, but no one is sent out to check or fix it. And I do not have the money to keep travelling to the municipality office to go and report,” she said.

A few houses away we met Riaan Botes, who was trying to fix a leaking toilet pipe in his flooded yard. He is in dispute with the municipality over an R11,000 water bill caused by a leak, which he said is not his responsibility. He is unemployed. His daughter is paying the municipality monthly instalments of R233.

We met Wessels and Botes through community activist Linda Minnies, who took us around Beaufort West. On Long Street she showed us an overflowing drain that was spilling sewer water into the yard of a creche.

Decade of decay

The Beaufort West Local Municipality has been one of the most politically unstable municipalities in the country. After the 2016 elections the municipality was run by a DA-led coalition, but was replaced mid-term by an ANC and Karoo Democratic Force (KDF) coalition. The 2021 elections led to an ANC, PA and KDF coalition. The town went through four Patriotic Alliance (PA) mayors in three years, including Ashley Sauls (who wanted to rename the town “Dubai West”) and Ebenezer Botha, who resigned after domestic violence allegations.

The Central Karoo District Municipality, which encompasses several local municipalities, including Beaufort West, is responsible for disaster management, environmental health, district roads and regional tourism, among other things. It has had similar levels of instability and was run by the PA’s Gayton McKenzie between April 2022 and May 2023.

The June 2024 by-elections gave the DA an outright majority in the local municipality. But the instability continued. DA mayor Sias Reynolds resigned nine months later. The town went four months without a mayor until the ANC’s Castro de Bruin was elected with the help of a now-expelled DA councillor. De Bruin resigned ahead of a no confidence motion, and the DA’s Gina Duimpies has been mayor since August 2025.

In 2023, two of the municipality’s water supply systems – Murraysburg and Nelspoort – were among eight in the Western Cape found to be in critical condition. In February this year the municipality was losing 77% of its water. The municipality’s Green Drop score, which assesses the treatment of wastewater, fell from 89.5% in 2011 to 59% in 2022.

The municipality has been under provincial administration since August 2021, having failed to pay suppliers on time and owing more than 2% of its operating expenditure. By June 2022 the municipality owed R120-million – R80-million to Eskom – and did not have enough revenue to fund its operations. It was relying heavily on overdraft facilities and was unable to properly collect rates from residents.

Its recovery plan has since seen a third of its Eskom debt written off, although collection rates remain below target and cash reserves are still thin. The municipality’s 2024/25 audit was its best audit opinion in years – “unqualified with findings” – after a string of qualified and disclaimed audit opinions.

The municipality has had a string of acting municipal managers since 2017. GroundUp sent questions to the municipality and received a response from acting municipal manager Gerald Esau, who had been appointed in April. He has since been replaced by Frans Sabbat.

Esau told GroundUp the municipality is grant-dependent. He said ageing water infrastructure resulted in frequent water outages, but funding had not yet been secured to refurbish and upgrade the water and sewer networks and pump stations.

But the municipality has a bad track record of spending grants. In July, R39.9-million was withheld from the municipality due to noncompliance. The municipality had R62-million in unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure at the time.

And the municipality was not designed to be grant-dependent – it has become so because of its failure to collect property rates and service charges due in part to weak billing systems and high water losses. In April, the municipality was collecting 82% of its revenue, against the National Treasury norm of 95%. Provincial treasury has said the 82% might be overstated.

Esau said the municipality had a “master list” of streets that needed attention and would be applying for a Municipal Infrastructure Grant for extra-high mast lights.

Meanwhile, Beaufort West’s recreational facilities lie unused, awaiting repairs and upgrades.

Parks and recreation

Thembinkosi Julu works at the Beaufort West Rugby Stadium clubhouse. We met him sitting at a small table inside, drinking tea and listening to the radio, his lap covered with a blanket against the cold. The clubhouse ceilings are broken and paint is peeling from the walls.

“This is where teams would usually gather before or after a rugby match… But now, this building does not even have electricity. It is just in a bad state,” Julu said.

Although built as recently as 2021 and funded by the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, most of the toilets do not work and the changing rooms are dilapidated.

Nkosithandile Daca, a security guard, popped into the clubhouse to keep warm since he has no security booth. He said he has had to chase vandals away many times.

Acting municipal manager Esau said the stadium’s funding application is still under review.

At the Rustdene Sport Stadium an R8-million upgrade to the netball and tennis courts is under way. The changing rooms, toilets and showers also need repairing.

At Kwa-Mandlenkosi township there is a “youth hub” with a fully equipped gym and swimming pool, but the pool has been unused since its closure in November 2023.

When we visited, there was no water in the taps or showers at the hub.

Esau said the pool was in need of “major repairs” and a technical report had been completed and would be submitted for the next round of grant funding from the national sports department.

This leaves residents with the Bird Street swimming pool, which should reopen in October, after being closed for the off-season since April.

Esau said the pool is in good condition but “the changing rooms were in a bad state due to vandalism and harsh weather conditions”. He said the “necessary repairs” would be done before opening in October.

Murraysburg

About 160km from Beaufort West lies the small town of Murraysburg. Residents say there are about 7,000 people living there. The population was 6,073 according to the 2022 census.

It has one primary and one high school, no shopping centres or supermarkets, and spaza shops, which except for one are run by immigrants.

The town hall is dilapidated. The cemetery has no fencing. There are three parks, all in bad condition. Residents have made their own swings for children using rubber and wires. There is no sports field.

Jacobus Warney, resident since 1983, is the deputy chairperson of civic organisation Community Based Tasks (Combat). He said: “Murraysburg was once known as the ‘spens of the Karoo’ (the pantry of the region). Today our town is struggling.”

He said power outages were frequent, making life especially hard for the elderly.

“In terms of our clinic/hospital, there is a lack of dental and X-ray services. Serious medical cases must be transported by road or air to Beaufort West or George, which is costly and life-threatening.”

Warney took us to a large dam where children were swimming because the local swimming pool has been closed for two years.

“Job opportunities, even positions such as cleaners, are filled by people from outside. Internships are reserved for certain groups, not for local youth. Young people sit without hope or motivation, which leads to substance abuse and crime,” Warney said.

He blamed the lack of local participation on bylaws and red tape. He also complained that the Thusong Service Centre was not serving citizens.

The service centre is a government programme established in 1999 to extend services like Home Affairs, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and labour closer to where people live, mainly in rural and underserviced communities.

According to the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), funding was still being sourced for the upgrading, management and effective functioning of the service centre.

Warney said the ceilings have collapsed and the roof is leaking. He said “foreigners” sleep upstairs and have shop space.

He said there is one local government office for community development workers and nonprofit organisation Right to Care has three offices.

Sassa is at the town hall. Home Affairs is open on a Wednesday from 10am to 2pm.

He said the “doors of opportunity, education and economy remain closed” for Murraysburg residents.

The 2026/27 IDP cites agriculture as the main source of income and said the town itself “has very limited economic activity” with few facilities.

“Murraysburg has been identified as a settlement with very low development potential and very high social needs,” it said.

Acting municipal manager Esau said the biggest challenge in Murraysburg is the lack of economic activity.

“Currently most of the government services are provided on a periodic basis through roadshows and other forms,” Esau said. “The government needs to invest in these towns by opening satellite offices with the necessary human resources, and if that happens the private sector will follow suit.

“We need investment in the electricity infrastructure to implement housing projects in the town. The municipality has knocked on different doors for funding without any tangible success.”

He said the municipality will prioritise bringing one park to life this financial year.

He said the Beaufort West Municipality had compiled funding applications for sportsfields across the entire municipality. Murraysburg had received feedback with revised requirements.

“We are now awaiting final funding approval from the relevant department.”

Nestled inside Murraysburg is Gaza informal settlement, established about six years ago. It has no water, electricity or toilets and is home to about 20 households.

“The majority of us are unemployed here. We apply to the municipality, but with them it is who you know who works there already,” Felemon Staanders said.

He said they use candles for light and open fires to cook. They fetch water from anyone willing to give it to them. People relieve themselves in an adjacent open field.

Andries Goeieman, who lives in a shack with his partner and three children, said: “We do not even receive refuse bags for our rubbish. There is no youth development and jobs are only six month contracts with the age requirement of 18 to 35.”

Esau said the municipality intends to provide water and toilets for Gaza. Regarding electricity, the settlement is serviced directly by Eskom.

He said the long-term solution for Murraysburg lay with help from the provincial infrastructure department. DM

First published by GroundUp.