Mkhondo Local Municipality, seated at Piet Retief on the Eswatini border, was placed under administration on 1 August 2009. The NCOP's oversight report of 17 November 2009 (ATC091117) recorded that bank reconciliations had not been done since 2006, the integrated development plan and budget were unaligned, a R14.7 million roads contract rested on nothing more than a letter of appointment, municipal debt stood at R69 million and infrastructure backlogs spanned all fifteen wards. The intervention was extended.
A decade later nothing had improved enough to notice. In August 2020 residents petitioned the Premier over water, roads and sewage, and the provincial Cogta department complained that the municipality would not hand over documents; Mayor Mthokozisi Simelane: "I'm not aware of such information or the memorandum." A further s139(1)(b) notice followed in 2022.
On 28 August 2025 the Hawks arrested the municipality's public-safety manager, Sydney Masango, and Gugulethu Zulu, director of Legent 12 (Pty) Ltd, over an invoice of R85,875 for the repair of a road-marking machine — a repair that had cost R718.20. Both were released on R4,000 bail. The sum is trivial; the mark-up is 11,800%. The charges are untested.