Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached a soundbite in English by Freddy Sonakile
The DA in North West has today requested the Ministers of Cooperative Governance and Finance to place the Ditsobotla Local Municipality under Section 139(7) national administration, read together with Section 150 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). See letter here.
Despite repeated yet failed interventions by the North West Provincial Government, the Ditsobotla Local Municipality has collapsed.
Ditsobotla is currently under Provincial Government administration under Section 139(5), following the dissolution under Section 139(1)(c) in 2022 and the Section 139(1)(b) interventions in 2018. Last month the Provincial Department of Cooperative Government dispatched a team of experts to rescue the municipality after the Provincial Treasury dispatched the Provincial Executive Representatives to the municipality to implement a financial recovery plan earlier this year.
All these interventions have failed because the ANC-led North West Provincial Government does not have the political will nor administrative capacity to stabilise governance and improve financial management and service delivery.
North West Acting Premier, Nono Maloyi, promised Ditsobotla residents and municipal employees that governance is improving during the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) provincial week in September 2023, but like all previous empty promises, the dire situation in the municipality continue to deteriorate.
To date, the municipality has failed to pay its creditors and the salaries for September 2023 and neither is it able to deliver even the most basic of services. The municipality’s bank account is empty, and it is apparent that all the interventions proposed by Acting Premier Maloyi have brought no positive change.
Ditsobotla owes Eskom more than R1 billion for bulk electricity supply which it would never be able to pay.
Residents continue to suffer the collapse of service delivery because of the failures of the ANC-led government.
Regular water supply and electricity outages, long turn-around times for restoration of supply, lack of maintenance of key infrastructure, non-existent refuse collection, pothole ridden roads and a dysfunctional Council and politicised administration lead to a miserable and untenable situation that not only negatively affect the quality of life of residents but also threaten the economic viability of the municipality.
Ditsobotla, for all practical purposes, exists as a municipality on paper only.
A Section 139(7) national government intervention could stabilise Ditsobotla to allow for the resumption of basic service delivery as the national administration team would be far removed from the local and provincial ANC factions abusing Ditsobotla as a battleground for power and access to public resources.