The Democratic Alliance in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) will demand answers and accountability following bungling and inept governance by the municipality that has seen Tzaneen’s roads deteriorate further and collapse after the torrential rain and flooding that hit the Mopani District.
Residents and businesses, who were already forced to endure poorly maintained and substandard roads before the rains, now face roads that are barely driveable.
Since early January, the municipality has been unable to repair potholes because it ran out of materials after its pool of accredited suppliers lapsed. A new pool of suppliers was meant to be appointed in the first week of January, but this process has still not been finalised.
As a result of the heavy rains, potholes have now turned into gaping craters — yet they still cannot be properly repaired due to the municipality’s ongoing bungling and ineptitude. With no accredited suppliers and no appropriate materials, the municipality has resorted to filling these craters with soil.
This is not the only example of mismanagement. In March 2024, GTM and the Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) entered into a service-level agreement for the maintenance of certain key roads. RAL — a failing Limpopo SOE in its own right — appointed a contractor to rehabilitate four streets, including Van Velden Street. The DA repeatedly alerted GTM to the poor quality of the contractor’s work and the rapid re-emergence of potholes on roads that had supposedly been repaired. Today, Van Velden Street is in a worse condition than it was before the work was undertaken, highlighting substandard workmanship and a complete failure of oversight.
See here.
Substandard workmanship and the total lack of oversight and accountability by both GTM and RAL amount to a perfect storm — made worse by the devastating rainfall and flooding that has battered Tzaneen and the Mopani District.
During GTM’s IDP Strategic Session in December 2025, the DA raised concerns about the poor quality of road repairs. Despite assurances, no corrective action followed. We also called for the financial ring-fencing of basic service delivery, but this proposal was similarly ignored.
Municipalities are statutorily at the coalface of disaster management. Prevention and mitigation are the first pillars of disaster management and include ensuring that municipal infrastructure is properly maintained to withstand extreme weather events.
The DA will raise this matter at the municipality’s Infrastructure and Finance Portfolio Committee and demand answers, accountability, and firm action.
As local government elections approach, the Greater Tzaneen community will have the opportunity to put an end to irresponsible governance and repeated service delivery failures. The DA stands ready to provide responsible, responsive and caring local government.