Big change at a prominent South African municipality on the cards

·19 Feb 2025

The African National Congress (ANC) in the North West are mulling merging the troubled Ditsobotla Local Municipality (DLM) with those surrounding it after the 2026 local government elections.

The party said this would happen if the provincial government’s interventions continue to fail to address the challenges in the region.

“We have implemented all the interventions that you can think of,” said ANC North West spokesperson Tumelo Maruping, whose party has an outright majority in the province.

“If the interventions do not work out, post-2026, we are now looking at getting rid of that municipality altogether and merging it with other municipalities,” said Maruping.

He said this is because “we would have exhausted all the avenues available to them in terms of the constitution.”

Ditsobotla, which includes towns like Lichtenburg, Coligny, and Ga-Raphalane, is home to over 200,000 people and is an important agricultural region with key manufacturing, wholesale, and retail sectors.

It has faced a decade of deteriorating essential services, political instability, corruption, and financial mismanagement.

Ditsobotla’s budget deficit is about R171 million in the current financial year. It owes Eskom more than R1.2 billion, other creditors’ debt totals R200 million, and household debt is R1.4 billion.

BusinessTech recently visited Ditsobotla, where residents and business leaders reported worsening conditions that had become “unbearable” due to failures in water, electricity, sanitation, by-law enforcement, and road upkeep.

Having disclaimed audits for over a decade, the municipality has repeatedly been placed under mandatory intervention due to its inability to provide basic services or meet financial obligations.

The municipal council was dissolved over two years ago and reconstituted in early 2023 after the December 2022 by-elections, in which the ANC lost its majority.

Despite several provincial government interventions, not much has improved.

“We have received a well-researched document in terms of the process or alternatives we can implement in Ditsobotla,” said Maruping.

“The only thing that we are left with, which we are still considering, is the entire dissolution of Ditsobotla not as a municipality but in terms of demarcation.”

This is “so that we get rid of that type of municipality because it’s not working for us. It’s not working for our people,” he added.

However, he emphasised that it is not a final decision. If it does take fruition, the process to dissolve Ditsobotla may start in 2026.

On 6 February 2025, North West Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Gaoage Molapisi said in a press briefing the environment in Ditsobotla has not been conducive for intervention teams to operate.

He said that the municipality lacks professionalism and accountability, a spirit of entitlement, and concerted efforts to maintain the status quo and stop any effort to bring change.

“The intervention team has witnessed and experienced the prevalence of organised crime in the form of being held hostage and kidnapped, which makes it impossible to operate,” said Molapisi.

“We have played a major role in assisting the municipality to stabilise, however, there is still a lot of work to be done to return the municipality to normality,” he added.

Opposition parties and civil society organisations reject proposition

The two largest opposition parties in the province, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), have rejected this proposal.

“We feel strongly that won’t be a tangible solution, actually it’s going to create more problems even to other municipalities that will now inherit Ditsobotla,” said Fanon Moema, EFF provincial spokesperson.

“It becomes a problem to now transfer a problem to other municipalities that are not in good standing themselves,” he added.

DA North West Cogta spokesperson Chris Steyl said, “Cutting up Ditsobotla and incorporating various parts into these surrounding municipalities will further erode the quality of life of residents.”

He said this is “because none of the surrounding municipalities would be able to respond to the massive infrastructure backlog.”

“All it will do is spread the tentacles of the Ditsobotla mafia to other municipalities to continue the looting,” he alleged.

Naude Pienaar from the Ditsobotla Services Association (DSA) said such a proposition “would never work.”

“The solution for Ditsobotla must come from Ditsobotla. Merging them into other failing municipalities is not going to solve the problem,” said Pienaar.

National intervention

The Ditsobotla Services Association, alongside business interest group Sakeliga, are litigating against Ditsobotla Municipality, securing court rulings for urgent water and electricity supply.

The group has pushed for the municipality to be placed under Section 139(5) provincial administration. It is gathering evidence for a potential Section 139(7) national administration, aiming to involve the National Treasury for similar outcomes.

“National Treasury needs to work with us in Ditsobotla,” said Pienaar.

The DA in the province has requested a national government intervention under Section 139(7) to administer Ditsobotla’s affairs, coupled with:

A fully funded financial recovery plan administered by National Treasury;
An independent financial forensic audit;
An independent skills audit of all management;
Lifestyle audits of all elected political office bearers and municipal management;
Disciplinary action to remove compromised politicians and municipal officials from office and prosecution of all individuals complicit in criminal activity;
The Asset Forfeiture Unit to recover all losses identified in the forensic audit.

Meanwhile, the National Treasury confirmed with BusinessTech that it is not considering a Section 139(7) national intervention for Ditsobotla at this time, citing the ongoing provincial intervention.

A Financial Recovery Plan (FRP) was approved in August 2023.

“It is therefore premature at this point to invoke a S139(7) intervention as the province has demonstrated that it is addressing the problem in the Ditsobotla local municipality,” said Treasury.

At this point, the national government said that it allows the provincial executive “time and space” to oversee the provincial mandatory intervention invoked.

“The national executive will consider the invocation of section 139(7) intervention only if the jurisdictional facts for a national intervention have been met,” said Treasury.