Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality
Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Thabo Mofutsanyane District of the Free State in South Africa. It encompasses substantially all of the former bantustan of QwaQwa, except for the small enclave at Botshabelo. The population is almost entirely Southern Sotho. The municipality is named after the Drakensberg mountains. The peak in Qwaqwa is known as the Sentinel, which is called "Phofung" in Sesotho.
Problems
Maluti-a-Phofung is one of the very very poorer municipalities in the Free State; as of 2011 over 82% live below the poverty line. Prior to 1994, the area was relatively prosperous with over 250,000 people employed in the textile and furniture industries, mostly at low wages. The new South African government terminated industrial subsidies. That and labor agitation for higher wages made the factories uneconomic, and over the next decade most of the factories closed. The last one closed in 2010. At present government is the largest employer followed by a weak retail employment. The municipality itself has been in substantial debt for decades, and owes a considerable debt to both the regional water and electrical utilities.Municipal services
The failure to deliver adequate municipal services has been a chronic problem since at least 2000. As a result, there have been a number of protests by the populace, among which was the one in Harrismith in 2004.In 2018, local residents held a mass protest concerning the failure to provide municipal services. The protest turned into a riot, shopping malls were looted, and one man was fatally shot. As a result, Cogta intervened and administration was removed from the mayor and local council and placed directly under Cogta, a move welcomed by the South African Municipal Workers' Union.
Administration
The municipal council consists of sixty-nine members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Thirty-five councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in thirty-five wards, while the remaining thirty-four are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 3 August 2016 the African National Congress won a majority of forty-seven seats on the council.Election results
The following table shows the results of the election.2019 municipal by-elections
In 2019, the African National Congress expelled sixteen of its municipal councillors for defying a Provincial Executive Committee decision by siding with opposition parties to remove executive mayor Vusi Tshabalala. All fifteen ward councillors contested the by-elections as independent candidates in their respective wards on 28 August 2019, of whom ten were elected. The ANC managed to retain five wards, despite strenuous canvassing by the provincial leadership and former premier Ace Magashule. The table below depicts the new composition of the council.Main places
The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:| Place | Code | Area | Population | Most spoken language |
| 42nd Hill | 2.81 | 16,077 | Zulu | |
| Bolata | 33.46 | 29,932 | Sotho | |
| Harrismith | 136.14 | 6,345 | Afrikaans | |
| Intabazwe | 0.82 | 3,685 | Zulu | |
| Kestell | 13.54 | 889 | Afrikaans | |
| Mabolela | 25.52 | 23,727 | Sotho | |
| Matsieng | 79.62 | 23,858 | Sotho | |
| Monontsha | 45.81 | 50,438 | Sotho | |
| Namahadi | 59.58 | 86,965 | Sotho | |
| Phomolong | 16.51 | 6,413 | Sotho | |
| Phuthaditjhaba | 38.48 | 53,175 | Sotho | |
| Thaba Bosiu | 43.64 | 8,131 | Sotho | |
| Thaba Tshweu | 109.54 | 8,876 | Sotho | |
| Thibela | 31.30 | 5,039 | Sotho | |
| Tlholong | 1.15 | 4,824 | Sotho | |
| Tshiame | 9.24 | 12,963 | Sotho | |
| Witsieshoek | 52.41 | 4,307 | Sotho | |
| Remainder of the municipality | 3,721.58 | 15,142 | Sotho |