Ngwathe Local Municipality
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.
Main places
The South African [National Census of 2001|2001 census] divided the municipality into the following main places:| Place | Code | Area | Population | Most spoken language |
| Edenville | 9.25 | 896 | Sotho | |
| Heilbron | 26.47 | 9,652 | Sotho | |
| Koppies | 114.90 | 967 | Afrikaans | |
| Kwakwatsi | 1.81 | 7,830 | Sotho | |
| Mokwallo | 1.87 | 8,637 | Sotho | |
| Ngwathe | 0.88 | 5,294 | Sotho | |
| Parys | 17.28 | 10,716 | Afrikaans | |
| Phiritona | 3.10 | 15,874 | Sotho | |
| Tumahole | 23.21 | 33,084 | Sotho | |
| Vredefort | 19.77 | 3,053 | Sotho | |
| Remainder of the municipality | 6,860.55 | 22,811 | Sotho |
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 2021 [South African municipal elections|election of 1 November 2021] the African National Congress 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.