- DA rejects Ba-Phalaborwa’s unfunded budget.
- ANC has no plan to turn Phalaborwa around.
- DA will seek provincial and national intervention.
- DA proposes a development moratorium until infrastructure is fixed.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ba-Phalaborwa outright rejects the 2026/27 budget adopted by the ANC-led Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality. The DA will seek urgent provincial and national government intervention into the systemic issues that have resulted in Phalaborwa’s collapse, as it is now clear that the municipality cannot fix what it broke.
We will also table a motion in the next Council meeting calling for an immediate moratorium on further development and reckless densification in Phalaborwa town where failing and inadequate infrastructure capacity cannot support it, and a firm clampdown on illegal and unauthorised building until the town’s infrastructure is rehabilitated and augmented.
The adopted budget confirms that the municipality has no credible, funded recovery plan, nor the financial capacity, to halt Phalaborwa’s worsening infrastructure and service-delivery crisis. Residents are left with the consequences of years of ANC neglect, under-maintenance and poor financial management, while further development and unlawful building activity place additional strain on already failing infrastructure.
The ANC has presided over the collapse of Phalaborwa’s roads, stormwater systems, electricity infrastructure and basic municipal services. It now lacks the capacity and financial means to fix what it allowed to break.
This is not only the DA’s view. Ba-Phalaborwa’s own Annual Budget Summary records Provincial Treasury’s finding that the budget is unfunded and that the municipality must implement a funding plan, reduce non-urgent internally funded projects, stabilise its declining cash position, improve revenue collection and enter into an affordable repayment arrangement with Mopani District Municipality.
An unfunded budget is not a recovery plan. It is an admission of failure.
Phalaborwa was already in crisis before the devastating January 2026 floods. The floods worsened an already collapsing system, but they did not create years of failed maintenance, financial mismanagement and weak governance.
The municipality’s own public participation report confirms deep community distress. Residents raised concerns about water shortages, sewage spillages, broken reticulation pipes, dysfunctional drainage, potholes and damaged roads, prolonged electricity outages, load reduction and poor maintenance. Yet the municipality’s responses provided no clear way forward
Mopani District Municipality, as the Water Services Authority, remains central to the water and sanitation crisis, along with Lepelle Northern Water as the bulk water supplier.
More than four months after the floods, residents still have no clear, funded and time-bound plan to stabilise services, repair collapsed infrastructure and restore dignity.
We urge residents to use the voter registration weekend on 20–21 June 2026 to ensure they are registered to vote in November. Residents must be registered to vote for change.