The City of Matlosana Local Municipality in Klerksdorp has been found to be on the wrong side of the law again.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has released its investigative report into a complaint concerning the municipality’s discontinuation of the Free Basic Alternative Energy (FBAE) programme.
The commission reported that the decision to discontinue the programme severely affected poor and vulnerable households living in areas without access to electricity, including unemployed and child-headed households that could not afford to purchase paraffin themselves.
The FBAE programme was introduced by the municipality during the 2012/13 financial year to provide paraffin as an interim alternative energy source to indigent households residing on farms, in informal settlements and in other non-electrified areas, pending electrification.
Speaking on the YOU FM Newshour, SAHRC Provincial Manager Shirley Mlombo said the municipality was guilty of terminating the programme without adequately consulting affected beneficiaries and without properly considering their needs.
“The commission found that the initial administrative discontinuation of paraffin was procedurally unfair and inconsistent with the right to just administrative action.
“It further found that Matlosana failed to comply with its constitutional and statutory obligations relating to sustainable service delivery and community participation, and that Fikile Mahlophe, in his capacity as Executive Mayor, failed to adequately consider the needs and views of affected FBAE beneficiaries, among others,” said Mlombo.
The SAHRC’s investigation also revealed that the municipality had ‘misinterpreted’ the Auditor-General of South Africa’s recommendation on the matter.
“The AG found that there were some irregularities in how the programme was managed.
“But again, we established through the investigation that the AG did not recommend that the programme be terminated, but rather recommended that issues around irregular expenditure and how the programme was managed needed to be addressed,” explained Mlombo.
She dismissed the municipality’s “financial crisis” as one of the reasons for its decision.
“We accept that the municipality indeed has financial challenges that need to be addressed and that there are many reasons for these challenges that have been highlighted in its own financial recovery plan.
“But we have noted that the plan itself does not highlight the issue of free basic alternative energy as one of the main drivers of the financial crisis, and therefore we do not believe that terminating the programme altogether will help address the municipality’s financial crisis,” she said.
The municipality has been ordered, among other things, to ensure the provision of alternative energy to former FBAE beneficiaries who still require and qualify for such assistance, and to submit a time-bound plan for the electrification of former FBAE beneficiary households not covered by existing electrification plans.
It was also ordered to submit a progress report on the electrification of former FBAE beneficiaries already included in existing plans. The report must include the number of households electrified since 9 February 2026 and completion dates for outstanding projects, within 90 days of receiving the report.
