On Thursday Premier Bushy Maape and Cooperative Governance MEC Lenah Miga, and other members of the Executive Council (Exco), decided to dissolve the municipal council of the Lichtenburg-based Ditsobotla Local Municipality.

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According to the North West Provincial Government spokesperson, Brian Setswambung, the municipality was placed under the provincial government’s care after all interventions failed to restore stability in the municipality, resulting in the total collapse of systems. The municipality had two mayors and two municipal managers (MM), with the council allegedly divided. Setswambung says the trouble at this municipality also resulted in it failing to discharge its constitutional obligation and legislative mandate.

In February, the MEC for Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Lenah Miga, criticised the mayor for allegedly appointing a municipal manager (MM) of his own accord. Miga, in a statement, accused the mayor of contravening the Municipal Systems Act 2000 by appointing an acting Municipal Manager without a council resolution.

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Setswambung says as a result of the conditional grant being withheld by the national government, the municipality was unable to pay the salaries of workers and compulsory third-party payments. This week, employees held municipal councillors hostage in demand of their August salaries, which remain unpaid.

“The North West Executive Council convened on an urgent basis on Wednesday 14th September 2022 to receive a report and consider a set of recommendations from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) on the state of governance, the collapse of administrative systems and institutional dysfunctionality at the Ditsobotla Local Municipality. Over the past months, the Ditsobotla Local Municipality experienced a heightened state of deterioration of stability in both administration and council operations, which escalated in July when the government, through Section 216 of the Constitution, withheld the disbursement of the equitable share to the municipality. Since the inauguration of new councils, the Provincial Government adopted a cooperative approach to give the Ditsobotla Local Municipality a chance to resolve internal governance challenges through support from the department and the Exco team of MECs appointed by Premier Kaobitsa Bushy Maape - comprising of MEC for Cogta Lenah Miga, MEC for Finance Motlalepula Rosho, and MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management Sello Lehari - as empowered under Section 154 of the constitution,” Setswambung adds.

Section 154 gives the Provincial Government powers to support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, exercise their powers and perform their own functions. This intervention measure will be used along with Section 139 (5) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) by the Provincial Treasury to implement the financial mandatory recovery plan given the dire financial distress of the municipality.

OFM News in June 2022 reported that the Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke announced that all 22 North West municipalities have failed to obtain a single clean audit. Maluleke, in her recent audit report, said these 22 municipalities either obtained unqualified opinions, qualified opinions with findings, or disclaimed opinions, making them one of the worst-performing provinces.

ALSO READ: 22 North West municipalities fail to obtain clean audits

She also said almost half (43%) of the money spent by North West municipalities was spent irregularly.

ALSO READ: Almost half of North West municipalities' expenditure irregular

OFM News