Note to Broadcasters: Please find the attached soundbite in English by Freddy Sonakile.
- Thuntsha Lerole was supposed to fix service delivery – now it needs a War Room to do the job. What has Thuntsha Lerole actually delivered?
- Another costly structure raises serious questions about accountability, powers and political appointments. The DA will demand full disclosure from Premier Mokgosi.
- North West doesn’t need more structures – it needs leadership and consequence management. Stop creating structures. Start governing.
The DA views Premier Lazarus Mokgosi’s establishment of yet another so-called “Service Delivery War Room” as an admission that his government’s much-publicised Thuntsha Lerole programme has failed to deliver sustainable improvements for the people of North West.
Thuntsha Lerole was itself introduced as an accelerated service delivery intervention, supposedly aimed at coordinating government, addressing service delivery failures, removing bottlenecks and improving accountability.
Now the Premier tells us that another structure is required to coordinate government, monitor performance, identify bottlenecks, unlock stalled projects and ensure accountability.
If Thuntsha Lerole now requires a war room to do what Thuntsha Lerole was supposed to do, what exactly has Thuntsha Lerole been doing?
The DA will therefore demand that Premier Mokgosi table before the North West Provincial Legislature the War Room’s full terms of reference, legal mandate, membership, appointment processes, remuneration arrangements, operational budget, reporting lines and measurable performance targets.
Even more concerning is the appointment of former Community Safety and Transport Management MEC, Dr Mpho Motlhabane, to head this structure.
The DA will further demand full disclosure of the process followed in appointing Dr Motlhabane, whether this is a remunerated position, the total operational cost of the War Room, its full membership and, importantly, the legal and executive powers it will actually possess.
The timing also cannot be ignored. We are in an election year. After years of collapsing municipalities, water shortages, deteriorating roads, sewage spillages, waste management failures and financially distressed councils, another government intervention suddenly emerges as communities prepare to go to the polls.
North West residents deserve to know whether this War Room can actually compel a Municipal Manager or Accounting Officer to act, enforce consequence management, intervene in failing municipalities or take binding decisions. If it cannot, then it risks becoming nothing more than another costly meeting of officials and a structure created to keep political insiders busy.
The province does not suffer from a shortage of structures. We already have a Premier, MECs, provincial departments, municipal councils, executive mayors, municipal managers, oversight committees and legislative mechanisms to intervene where municipalities fail.
What North West lacks is leadership and consequence management.
We need councils that bite, political mandates that are implemented within the law, competent administrations and political leaders willing to use the powers they already have.
North West cannot continue to create structures to supervise structures that were created because other structures are not functioning.
Stop creating structures. Start governing.