The Ditsobotla Municipality, which includes the towns of Lichtenburg and Coligny, was placed under provincial care in September 2018, with the embattled administrator being formally introduced to council a month later. The Ditsobotla spokesperson, Pius Batsile, says the municipality was initially optimistic about the provincial government’s intervention with the hopes that service delivery would be improved. However, nearly a year later, Ditsobotla councillors have declared a dispute with the provincial government over the implementation of the intervention. The current administrator lays at the centre of this contentious relationship.

Ditsobotla councillors reportedly want the administrator to be withdrawn, citing non-performance as their primary reason. Batsile says on July 1, the council had to step in to arrange a payment agreement with Eskom over the municipality’s more than R430 million bill just to keep the lights in the area on. He says the provincial government has failed to do anything about this mounting bill. Then Premier Job Mokgoro made damning allegations against the council last week, adding that the council deliberately ignores intervention, even barring the administrator from entering the municipal offices.

What follows is a July 4 meeting that, according to reports, descended into chaos because of the above-mentioned statements. The meeting, led by MEC of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs, Gordon Kegakilwe, was meant to look into the progress and issues at the municipality following intervention, what instead occurred is a spat between councillors and Mokgoro, who was also present. Batsile says they demanded Mokgoro to account for his public statements, which he refused to do, forcing Kegakilwe to bring the meeting to an abrupt end.

Ditsobotla remains resolute, they want the incumbent administrator out, it remains to be seen if the provincial government will oblige before the situation in the North West municipality worsens.

Lichtenburg and Coligny were among areas in the province that have been affected by unrest over the lack of service delivery. The OFM News team visited the areas during the election period, finding remnants of the unrest including torched municipal offices in the Lichtenburg township.

OFM News