Free State’s Matjhabeng mayor Thanduxolo Khalipha and acting municipal manager Thabo Panyani are facing mounting pressure inside the ANC after allegedly defying instructions from the party’s national and provincial leadership to cooperate with an intervention team tasked with stabilising the troubled municipality.
Sunday World can reveal that Khalipha and Panyani were hauled into a tense meeting in Bloemfontein in March attended by ANC NEC deployees, the Free State ANC top five and Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae over ongoing tensions with provincial executive representatives (PER) overseeing implementation of the municipality’s financial recovery plan.
The PER team is led by former Free State education MEC Makalo Mohale.
Insiders familiar with the meeting said Khalipha and Panyani were confronted over allegations that Matjhabeng officials were frustrating the intervention process instead of cooperating with efforts to stabilise the municipality.
The meeting was chaired by ANC NEC member and deputy cooperative governance minister Dickson Masemola, alongside fellow NEC member and small business development minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.
The pair were dispatched by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to deal with governance challenges in municipalities across the province.
“Dickson wanted to know whether the ANC and government had effectively lost control of Matjhabeng,” said one insider. “The room became tense because nobody wanted to openly confront Khalipha. It became clear to Dickson and Stella that many leaders in the province viewed him as untouchable.”
The insider said Masemola directly asked ANC Free State chairperson Mxolisi Dukwana, provincial secretary Polediso “Dihelele” Motsoeneng and Letsoha-Mathae whether they had “thrown in the towel” in dealing with Khalipha.
Another source said Khalipha was instructed to stop frustrating the work of the PER team and cooperate with Mohale in implementing the financial recovery plan.
“Khalipha appeared shell-shocked during the meeting and promised to cooperate,” said the source.
“But after Dickson and Stella left, things allegedly went back to normal and the hostility towards PER continued.”
Matjhabeng has faced years of financial instability, governance failures and service delivery breakdowns, prompting intervention efforts by the provincial government.
In an email sent on Wednesday, Mohale reminded Panyani that he had previously requested feedback on whether action had been taken regarding allegedly unlawful appointments linked to so-called ghost workers in the mayor’s office. According to Mohale, Panyani did not acknowledged the correspondence.
Questions were sent to Masemola, Ndabeni-Abrahams, Letsoha-Mathae, Motsoeneng, and Dukwana..
Visit SW YouTube Channel for our video content
- Free State’s Matjhabeng mayor Thanduxolo Khalipha and acting municipal manager Thabo Panyani are accused of defying ANC national and provincial leadership by not cooperating with an intervention team stabilizing the municipality.
- A tense March meeting in Bloemfontein, involving ANC NEC deployees and Free State leadership, confronted Khalipha and Panyani over allegations they were frustrating efforts to implement Matjhabeng's financial recovery plan.
- ANC NEC members Dickson Masemola and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, sent by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to address municipal governance issues, questioned whether party leaders had lost control over Khalipha.
- Khalipha was told to stop obstructing the intervention team led by Makalo Mohale and to cooperate with financial recovery efforts but allegedly resumed hostile behavior after the meeting.
- Matjhabeng continues to struggle with financial and governance failures; intervention efforts are hindered by unaddressed issues like unlawful appointments and ghost workers, with slow communication from acting municipal manager Panyani.
