Important South African town taken over by gangsters
Non-profit organisation Sakeliga has approached the courts to seek urgent intervention from President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet to address the rapidly deteriorating Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
Ditsobotla is located in the North West province and consists of Lichtenburg, Coligny, and Ga-Raphalane, home to over 200,000 residents.
It is a significant agricultural area boasting important manufacturing, wholesale, and retail industries.
However, the municipality has been plagued by a collapse in basic services, political instability, corruption and financial mismanagement.
The Ditsobotla Local Municipality recently failed to submit financial reports to the Auditor General for scrutiny.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Ditsobotla in November 2022 and said it was “a town taken over by gangsterism”.
“Ditsobotla is a typical example of a municipality captured by criminal elements. They got into the municipality, captured it, and money was just being siphoned out,” he said.,
During the visit, the President lamented the failure of electricity, water provision, refuse removal and other basic services.
Having been dissolved before his visit, Ramaphosa said that after 14 December 2022, there would be a “municipality that is fit for purpose”.
He added that Ditsobotla was going to serve the people” following the by-elections. However, this progress has not materialised.
“The town is in a state of collapse, held together only by the communities and the business people of that town,” Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux said.
Sakeliga is asking the court to order Ramaphosa and his cabinet to take direct responsibility for the recovery of Ditsobotla.
The application
Sakeliga says its new court application follows an October 2023 order for provincial intervention under section 139(5) of the Constitution.
However, due to what it describes as a failure from the province, they now seek the highest form of intervention—national takeover under section 139(7).
They argue the President and cabinet should have acted a long time ago, but grossly neglected their duty.
Sakeliga has filed a court application asking for a declaration that the President, Cabinet, and specific ministers are acting unlawfully and unconstitutionally by failing to intervene in the collapse of the Ditsobotla.
They are requesting that the court order the President and Cabinet to take over the intervention from the provincial government.
This includes implementing the approved municipal recovery plan and reporting to the court within 10 days on restoring water and power.
The application calls for the completion of this work within 30 days, followed by ongoing maintenance and monthly, sworn progress reports to both the court and Sakeliga.
It also calls for the government to engage with Sakeliga quarterly and continue intervention until the crisis is resolved. Once granted, the court order must be delivered to Parliament.
Sakeliga says that “the requested order will provide the president and his subordinates with an opportunity to correct their failure and fulfil their responsibilities.”
However, “judging by growing state failure countrywide, this cannot be counted on,” Sakeliga added.
They further ask the court to allow future legal action without requiring a new case should the national executive fail again, echoing a similar request made in their October 2023 litigation.
Sakeliga warned that such failure would signal a serious constitutional crisis, as section 139 only allows for national intervention, with no fallback if that fails.
“Should the national executive fail yet again, Sakeliga will not hesitate to ask for new relief under article 172 of the Constitution,” they say.
Potential remedies include the appointment of a special master or legal protection for community-led emergency interventions to maintain services.
Sakeliga argues that systemic municipal collapse endangers national stability, citing R100 billion in Eskom debt and the financial failure of many municipalities.
As smaller towns across South Africa fail, residents migrate to already strained cities, risking a nationwide collapse.
They said their legal action in Ditsobotla forms part of a broader strategy to escalate municipal failure to the national level and open the door to non-governmental solutions when the state fails to act.
National intervention
In February, the DA asked National Treasury to place Ditsobotla Local Municipality under national intervention.
Treasury responded that “at this stage, there are no grounds for a national intervention,” noting the municipality is already under provincial mandatory intervention.
Treasury explained that it developed a Financial Recovery Plan (FRP) for Ditsobotla, which the MEC for Finance approved in August 2023.
A Provincial Executive Representative (PER) was appointed to oversee the implementation of the financial recovery plan.
It emphasised that the municipality must fully cooperate with the PER to ensure the FRP is appropriately executed.
Treasury said that “the crisis at the Ditsobotla local municipality is deep-rooted and has existed for some time. Therefore, resolving the nature and depth of these problems will require significant time and effort.”
The department said it was premature to invoke section 139(7), as the province has taken active steps. Treasury noted insufficient financial resources to address the challenges immediately.
They said that the national government is currently giving the provincial executive “time and space” to manage the situation and will only consider national intervention if conditions legally justify it.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs supports Treasury’s position.
BusinessTech’s recent visit
BusinessTech recently visited Ditsobotla to witness the situation firsthand by speaking with residents, businesses and other stakeholders.
Residents and businesses have endured prolonged water, electricity, sanitation, and road maintenance failures, leading to regular protests.
As such, capital is being forced to close shop. For example, in 2021, Clover closed its major cheese factory in Ditsobotla, explicitly citing “ongoing poor service delivery.”
The ANC in the North West has been discussing merging Ditsobotla with the areas surrounding it after the 2026 local government elections.
“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.
Additionally, it recently descended into further chaos amid violent clashes, political infighting, and contested leadership.
A court-ordered reinstatement of dismissed municipal manager Olaotse Bojosinyane led to a violent standoff at the council, leaving two employees shot.
At the same time, opposing political factions—including rival ANC groups and coalition partners—each claimed their own candidate as the legitimate mayor of Ditsobotla.
This deepened the leadership crisis, with competing council meetings and disputed appointments fueling confusion and instability within the already dysfunctional municipality.
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