Staff Reporter
Bloemfontein – The financials of Ngwathe Local Municipality paint a damning picture of the staggering costs of litigation incurred by the embattled municipality.
Ngwathe is the only municipality in the Free State to be placed under administration following its dissolution by COGTA MEC Teboho “Sulky” Mokoena after the Constitutional Court dismissed an application to appeal the High Court judgment.
While the dissolution remains questionable, as it should have been invoked after financial recovery, there is more to the municipality’s increasingly troubling financial picture.
STEPUPSANEWS can confirm that the municipality has so far splashed out R250 000 on the legal case brought by Mokoena challenging the appointment of Dr Patrick Mothamaha as Municipal Manager.
This is contained in the Annual Financial Statements in the possession of this publication.
In total, Ngwathe Local Municipality has spent a staggering R27 million on legal costs, almost triple what it spent in 2025.
But the financial disclosures reveal another striking detail.
The salary of the Municipal Manager increased significantly. In 2025, his salary was R1.6 million, and a year later it had jumped to R2.4 million.
Mokoena is the second COGTA MEC to go after Mothamaha, after Mxolisi Dukwana successfully overturned Mothamaha’s appointment in Maluti-A-Phofung.
Mothamaha is currently facing a criminal case in Bethlehem.
Ngwathe is also embroiled in a costly and contentious boreholes saga with Basieng Construction over a R40 million payment dispute.
There is also R3.9 million that was allegedly paid to Skybuild(owned by Victoria Mthombeni’s husband), while a security company with links to the Municipal Manager was allegedly paid over R1 million.
bank statements and recordings in possession of this publication show a pattern of looting.
After the R3.9 million was allegedly paid to Skybuild, the company was appointed only for another company to be appointed .
This is Ngwathe, and we will show why services are seemingly last on the agenda.
There is also a water treatment plant, a feeding scheme for looters.
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