The affected municipalities are reported to have been under administration on countless occasions, but seem not to be improving.

Some have been marred by political squabbles, which led to them having two mayors and two municipal managers at the same time. This is reported to have impacted negatively on the provision of services.

In the North West province, reasons advanced for dissolving the affected municipalities are, among others, their failure to execute their constitutional legislative mandate, being unable to provide services and elements of parallel political leadership, which is reported to have caused political instability that undermine administrative capacity and service delivery.

MEC for Cooperative Governance, Mmoloki Cwaile, says they will implement the decision of national government soon.

“The decision at the level of the national cabinet is made, and it is only for the province to implement. The decision is that we would have few of our municipalities dissolved. Municipalities that are candidates for dissolution include Ditsobotla, Ratlou, Ramotshere Moiloa, Tswaing and Kgetleng. The consideration has been made to include Naledi Municipality,” explains Cwaile.

Cwaile says they will also intervene in six other municipalities.

“Other municipalities would be subject to business rescue. Those municipalities might include Maqwassie Hills, Mamusa Local Municipality and Lekwa Teemane. Others would continue up to the point of the local elections remaining under section 100(1)(b), JB Marks, Madibeng Municipality and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati,” adds the MEC.

The ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) has welcomed the decision.

“These municipalities that were identified are unable to fulfil their constitutional obligation. They are unable to provide basic services to our people. They are unable to meet their financial obligations. In some instances you have two mayors and two municipal managers. So these municipalities are in disarray. The IPC has consequently been employed by both the provincial and national government to intervene expeditiously in these municipalities,” says IPC spokesperson, Kenny Morolong.

An expert on local government, Professor Barry Hanyane, believes the intervention by government is needed in order to mitigate the serious challenges they are faced with.

“The dissolution of some of these municipalities is obviously motivated by the need to mitigate against issues of corruption, and issues of maladministration, as such. In the North West, municipalities like Kgetleng, Tswaing, Ratlou, and so forth are some of the municipalities that unfortunately are in the red,” adds Professor Hanyane.

The North West Provincial Executive Council, led by Premier Job Mokgoro, is expected to decide about the dissolution of the affected municipalities this week.

SABC