Legislative Tracker

This bill forces municipalities to report every 3 months to the legislature about water outages, maintenance spend, and what they are doing to fix problems. If a municipality keeps failing, the province can withhold their funding until they produce a credible recovery plan.

• Right to a response: If your water is cut, you can log a formal complaint and must receive a written response within 14 days — failure triggers automatic escalation to the MEC.
• Financial consequences: Municipalities that fail for 3 or more consecutive quarters risk losing equitable share funding until they fix delivery.
• Legislative summons: The Portfolio Committee can call any municipal manager to account before the legislature at any time — no more unanswered questions.
• Who benefits most: Communities in Thabong, Welkom, Bethulie, and Springfontein who have experienced water cuts lasting 72+ hours stand to benefit directly from this bill.

This bill sets a legal ceiling on how many learners can be in a classroom at the poorest schools and guarantees a protected share of the education budget for rural school buildings — backed by annual independent audits that must be tabled in the legislature.

• Smaller classes: Quintile 1–3 schools must have a maximum of 35 learners per teacher, down from 45. Non-compliance triggers mandatory educator redistribution within 3 school terms.
• Protected rural funding: At least 40% of the provincial education capital budget must go to rural schools and cannot be redirected to other spending lines.
• Annual public audits: An independent audit of every school's infrastructure must be completed yearly and tabled before the Portfolio Committee — parents can track whether repairs happened.
• Who benefits most: Learners and parents at quintile 1–3 schools in Thabo Mofutsanyane and Fezile Dabi will see the most direct improvements.

This bill tightens accountability for RDP and BNG housing delivery. Contractors must meet deadlines or be blacklisted. Beneficiaries must be independently verified before a house is handed over. Waiting lists must be publicly accessible so communities can see where they stand.

• Check your place on the list: The housing beneficiary waiting list must be made publicly accessible — you can verify your position and whether the process is fair.
• No more queue-jumping: Every handover requires an independent beneficiary verification audit, directly addressing the fraud complaints from Mangaung Metro (1 240-signatory petition).
• Contractor accountability: Firms that delay or abandon projects are blacklisted — they cannot receive new government contracts, including as sub-contractors.
• Community consultation first: A 30-day public participation period in the affected ward must happen before any housing contractor is appointed — communities have a say before ground is broken.

This bill ensures clinics and hospitals are properly maintained using a ring-fenced budget that cannot be raided for other spending. An independent committee of auditors — including civil society members — will inspect every facility quarterly and report publicly on what they find.

• Emergency repairs in 48 hours: If a clinic loses power, water, or medical gas, the law requires a response plan within 48 hours. If the Department fails to act, the MEC can instruct emergency contractors and charge the cost back.
• Ring-fenced maintenance money: 3% of the annual health budget is locked for maintenance — it cannot be moved to salaries, operations, or other items, and unspent funds carry over to the next year.
• Public maintenance schedules: Every hospital and clinic must publish its maintenance plan, costs, and completion status online — communities can hold facilities accountable.
• Who benefits most: Patients and staff at Pelonomi and Bongani hospitals and at rural clinics in Thabo Mofutsanyane and Lejweleputswa, which were cited for the worst backlogs.

This bill opens provincial farming support — irrigation access, subsidised seeds, and cooperative registration help — to small-scale and subsistence farmers. Crucially, you do not need to own land. The ANC caucus is pushing to extend this explicitly to farmers who use municipal commonage, who are currently excluded from most support programmes.

• No land title required: If the ANC amendments pass, a provincial agricultural support card replaces the land ownership certificate as the qualifying document for input vouchers and irrigation access.
• Commonage farmers included: The estimated 3 000+ small-scale farmers in Xhariep farming on municipal commonage would qualify for provincial support for the first time.
• Cooperative assistance: The Department must help groups of 5 or more farmers register a cooperative, reducing the administrative barrier that has historically kept small producers out of formal supply chains.
• Access to irrigation: Communal irrigation schemes on municipal commonage would be eligible for provincial infrastructure support under the proposed amendments.

This bill strengthens civilian oversight of Community Police Forums (CPFs) and creates a provincial safety coordinator in each district. However, community safety organisations in informal settlements — which are often not formally registered as non-profit organisations — may be cut off from CPF funding under the current draft. The ANC caucus is engaging the Department to fix this before the bill is finalised.

• Better CPF accountability: Provincial safety coordinators will be appointed in every district to oversee CPF operations and ensure funding is properly spent.
• Risk for informal settlements: Clause 9 currently requires CPFs to be registered NPOs. Community-based organisations (CBOs) in informal settlements that operate informally may be excluded from funding — watch this space.
• Caucus is acting: The ANC caucus is engaging the Department to create a simplified CBO recognition pathway so informal settlement safety groups are not left out.
• Your chance to engage: The public hearing on 7 April 2026 is the direct opportunity for informal settlement communities to raise this concern before the bill proceeds to a plenary vote.

This bill is already signed into law (14 February 2026). It opens provincial investment incentives — grants, tax relief, and co-funding — to small and medium enterprises in smaller towns across the Free State. It also creates a dedicated SMME development fund with ring-fenced appropriations and cuts the red tape required to register a new business.

• Open to small businesses now: Investment incentives previously available only to larger firms are now accessible to SMMEs in secondary towns like Sasolburg, Kroonstad, Phuthaditjhaba, and Welkom.
• Dedicated SMME fund: A provincial fund with ring-fenced appropriations provides startup and growth capital for township and rural entrepreneurs who could not access the previous incentive framework.
• Less red tape: Bureaucratic registration requirements for emerging businesses have been reduced — fewer forms, fewer approvals, faster access to support.
• Already law — apply now: Signed by the Premier on 14 February 2026. Entrepreneurs in Fezile Dabi and Lejweleputswa should contact the Department of Economic Development for application details.

This bill creates a legal obligation to fix the worst roads first, based on a needs-based ranking system. Before any major road project can start in your community, residents must be formally consulted. An independent agency with community representatives from every district will oversee how road contracts are awarded and how money is spent.

• Worst roads fixed first: A provincial priority ranking matrix scores every road by its condition, safety risk, and community access needs — rural dirt roads that have been neglected for years will move to the top of the list.
• Mandatory community consultation: Before any road project above R5 million is approved, the affected community gets a minimum 30-day consultation period and their input must be reported to the legislature.
• Independent oversight: The new Free State Roads Agency (FSRA) will have an independent board with civil society representatives from each district — road contracts will face scrutiny beyond just the Department.
• 500 km rural roads annually: The bill requires at least 500 km of community access roads to be maintained or upgraded each year, with district-level targets tracked publicly against the annual performance plan.