Ngwathe Municipality (; ) is a local municipality within the Fezile Dabi District Municipality, in the Free State province of South Africa. Ngwathe is the Sesotho name for the Renoster River. South African Languages - Place names
Main places The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:Lookup Tables - Statistics South Africa Place Code Area (km2) Population Most spoken language Edenville 418019.25896Sotho Heilbron 4180226.479,652Sotho Koppies 41803114.90967Afrikaans Kwakwatsi 418041.817,830Sotho Mokwallo 418051.878,637Sotho Ngwathe 418110.885,294Sotho Parys 4180717.2810,716Afrikaans Phiritona 418083.1015,874Sotho Tumahole 4180923.2133,084Sotho Vredefort 4181019.773,053Sotho Remainder of the municipality 418066,860.5522,811Sotho
Politics
The municipal council consists of thirty-six members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Eighteen councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in eighteen wards, while the remaining eighteen 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 1 November 2021 the African National Congress (ANC) won a reduced majority of twenty-one seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.
Fraud and mismanagement In October 2024, Abram Maheso was arrested after attempting to defraud the municipality of R800 000 by claiming the account as his own when setting up an investment account.
Afriforum and the Save Ngwathe community group brought forward a case to dissolve the municipality, due to longstanding failures to fulfil its duties to residents, and compel the Free State provincial government to step in. In June 2025, the Free State High Court ordered the dissolution of the municipality.
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