Water

The Municipality provides six (6) kilo liter of free water per house- hold as required by government to give water as basic need to the poor. The municipality has not yet used the meter system in the township as the whole township is not fully being metered; certain portion of the township has not yet been connected with the meters it is only in town where meter readings are being conducted, in townships flat rate is applied.

Electricity

Electricity is one of the services that this municipality is offering fifty (50) kilowatts to all people free of charge.

Poverty Alleviation Programmes

Tswelopele Municipality as one of the three spheres of government, it is not operating in isolation from the policies of national government, as a result of that, the institution has also registered a number of cooperatives programmes as a means of poverty alleviation strategies. We have the following companies that are operating on a full scale as part of the poverty alleviation programmes:

• MLRT is a construction company established to empower local people with more than 12 beneficiaries;
• Vusiwe Food Garden is an agricultural project that has created job opportunities for several people. it consists of 24 beneficiaries based in the region;
• Leratong Cleaning Services is a company that was established for local people to take advantage of opportunity while creating economic growth and it has benefitted more than ten people; and
• Emthunzini Car Wash was established with the sole purpose of creating job opportunities for young unemployed members of the community.

Capacity building programmes

Our capacity building programmes include amongst other things, interns, cooperatives, small business and recycling programmes as these help to capacitate people to be financially independent and create self-employment and business opportunities for themselves. Training is one area where the municipality is giving attention so as to capacitate the employees through training .We have collaborated with LGSETA to provide the municipality with accredited service providers in terms of training so that the training that is offered to our employee is of good and adequate quality, which will at the end of the day, will meet the training needs of the workers.

Youth economic empowerment

• Registration of Youth Cooperatives like Mthunzini Car Wash and Tswelopele Youth BEE
• Establishment of Tswelopele Youth Chamber of Commerce
• Establishment of Youth Entrepreneurship Awards
• Ongoing information sessions with funding stakeholders

As part of the National Youth Services the Youth Fraternal was established with different church youth formations and they have developed youth services programmes. A learnership of Masupatsela was introduced where10 learners from both Bultfontein and Hoopstad took part. There is also a district programme of STI and HIV/AIDS where the youth of Tswelopele Local Municipality participates.

The youth also participated in an annual programme of soccer which normally takes place around Easter every year, in which 16 teams take part in it, all local teams and teams from around the near towns can participate. The tournament is scheduled for four days in a row and the winner takes R4500.00 and 18 gold medals. The youths of Tswelopele also takes part in O.R.Tambo games on an annual basis.

Community participation in municipal programmes

The community participates in the formulation of the Integrated Development Plans (IDP) by being invited as organizations, structures and individuals to make some inputs in as far as their immediate needs are concerned. Mass meetings are organized by ward councilors in different wards where the community participates by asking questions and engaging on issues pertaining to governance that they want clarity on and make inputs on the challenges they face and how service delivery can be improved. Normally when there are budget meetings, they also make inputs on how and where the money should be spent based on the urgency. Imbizo’s are also critical for community involvement. As part and parcel of the government’s programme, residents often attends to Imbizos because they strongly feel that through these direct consultations and engagement with their political representatives in government provides them with an opportunity to identify challenges and success of the municipality.

Community Development Workers

Well-trained community development workers (CDW’s) assist with the quality of government services which are provided to the communities by identifying new programmes and creating linkages and coordination with other community stakeholders. CDWs are resourceful because they are expected to know about the basic services that are being provided by the government in various departments at different levels of government. The impact that the CDWs are bringing in our communities is that they help members of our communities by helping them by providing them with information of government in different government departments. They serve as link between the government and the people while assisting people acquire access to information and services and also help by setting up community based projects such as cooperatives and small business to alleviate poverty in their community.

They improve coordination strengthens service delivery programmes to the benefit of all. They do all this by getting information from different government department and their programmes. They communicate with relevant department at all times to assist communities with their needs from the government side. The cross-cutting nature of their work (is that they are working with government agencies, local structures, provincial and national departments).One of the key objectives or main functions of the CDWs is to ensure that the community and the residents of a municipality gets access to municipal services and help with encouraging local people to register for indigence policy for them to be subsidized by government for the payment of their services to the municipalities.

Tourism

Tourist destinations and places of attractions:

Hoopstad

• Sandveld Nature reserve and  Resort adjacent to Bloemhof  Dam
• Hoopstad Municipal Game Reserve
• Anglo Boer War Groves
• Sandstone NG Church – Hoopstad
• Groenvlei Game and Guest farm
• Dundee Game Reserve
• GNU Safari Farm

Sport and recreation

The following sport and recreation facilities have been built in the municipal area of operation:

• Golf courses
• Tennis courts
• Bowls
• Squash court
• Rugby facilities
• Soccer
• Netball courts

Bultfontein

The following places of interest are found in the municipality:

• Bultfontein Municipal Farm and Game Reserve
• Old police cell
• Old Magistrate Court
• Mari se Nes Guesthouse