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The Free State town of Welkom is engulfed in sewage thanks to its multibillion-rand wastewater treatment plant being offline owing to collapsing infrastructure and the municipality’s staggering R7.3bn debt to Eskom.
The town, which falls under the Matjhabeng municipality and has about 400,000 residents, has been issued with qualified audits by the auditor-general, and now the provincial government has intervened to try to bring it back from the brink of financial collapse.
The municipality owes a staggering R14bn to Eskom and Vaal Central Water, as it runs water and electricity distribution at a loss. The municipality recorded losses of R418m and R204m in water and electricity distribution in 2025.
It is also saddled with R26m in legal costs, mostly as a result of default judgments in respect of services, as it has no litigation strategy, according to the province.
Eskom told the Sunday Times the municipality had failed to meet the National Treasury’s debt-relief programme requirements.
“Eskom has undertaken several interventions to recover the outstanding debt,” the power utility said.
“The municipality was admitted to the National Treasury’s debt-relief programme on November 1 2023. However, the municipality failed to meet the requirements of the programme, which are [to pay] bulk electricity invoices in full within 30 days and [prevent] further arrears growth.
“Eskom offered the municipality a prepayment arrangement, [but] no response was received. In 2025, Eskom engaged [with] the municipal executives … to assist the municipality in achieving technical and financial sustainability in their electricity business, [but] there was no positive response in this regard.”
As a result, people in Welkom are being forced to dodge sewage that has overflowed into streets and onto pavements to get to shops, police stations, schools and clinics — all amid an unbearable stench.
Among those affected is the prestigious 18-hole Oppenheimer Park Golf Club, which receives its water from Witpan Dam next to Harmony Gold Mining Company’s local mine.
“There is a terrible smell because our sprinklers for the golf course get water from the dam, and we have raised this with Harmony because we are leasing the land from them. [Harmony] are coming to test the water on Monday, because to us this is just sewage,” said club manager Suria Faxelhas.
In 2022 an estimated R3.2bn was committed through a department of water & sanitation ministerial intervention to resolve wastewater challenges in the municipality.
The Sunday Times understands from municipal insiders that the department has completed and handed over the wastewater projects to the municipality, but Eskom has put the brakes on the treatment plants because of the unpaid billions.
Sewage treatment plants require a consistent, 24/7 supply of electricity to power air compressors and pumps that facilitate the biological treatment process applied to wastewater. But the municipality claims not all projects are completed, which is why the town is still covered in sewage.
To add to the municipality’s woes, Vaal Central Water — which provides water to the municipality — has implemented water reductions between 6pm and 6am.
“What you are seeing is a municipality that has collapsed despite billions of rands having been committed to projects to improve infrastructure. People have for the past five years been subjected to sewage everywhere on the streets and water leaks causing a stink. We have had to take matters into our own hands, and it doesn’t take us long to resolve some of these issues,” said Tabile Masunyane, chair of the Gatvol civic movement in Welkom.
People are getting sick because water is contaminated. There is sewage spillage all over the town, and it is worse in the townships — Tabile Masunyane, Gatvol civic movement
He said the group had on numerous occasions approached the municipality for money so they could clear stormwater channels and fix sewer spillages damaging the roads and causing a stench, but to no avail.
“People are getting sick because water is contaminated. There is sewage spillage all over the town, and it is worse in the townships,” Masunyane said.
When the Sunday Times visited Welkom, Masunyane and his team were clearing sewage near the police station amid an unbearable stench.
Last October, Free State finance MEC Moses Makume approved a financial recovery plan after a resolution was adopted by the provincial government to intervene in the crisis.
“The intervention [will end] when the crisis in the municipality’s financial affairs has been resolved, and the municipality’s ability to meet its obligations to provide basic services or its financial commitments is secured,” said the province in its status report to the portfolio committee on water and sanitation.
According to the report, the provincial government has found low levels of maintenance of infrastructure, which has led to the “excessive sewer and water leakages”.
The municipality has seen its legal bill skyrocket, with various businesses such as Nashua and Checkers suing it in respect of recurring sewage spills onto their properties. Nashua’s manager, Eddie Breytenbach, said that as of Friday the municipality was clearing spillages on their premises.
Matjhabeng spokesperson Tshediso Tlali undertook to comment on a set of questions sent to him by the Sunday Times but had not done so by the time of going to print.
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