Ditsobotla municipality: ‘A humanitarian, constitutional crisis’ – Sakeliga

The recent decision to place the troubled Ditsobotla Local Municipality under administration will not yield any positive results, this according to the lobby group which largely represents the interests of communities – Sakeliga.

Speaking to The Citizen, Sakeliga’s legal and liason officer Tian Alberts said the municipality is currently not under administration, and that it is unclear which decisions has actually been taken.

The municipality has for the longest time been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

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“The national government must now intervene on a granular level, including setting up a financial recovery plan and ensuring implementation thereof.

This, also would unlikely be an sufficient solution and Sakeliga is, therefore, forging ahead with creating favourable jurisprudence for communities to protect themselves against state decay, including alleviating legal barriers to self-sufficient solutions,” said Alberts.

Sakeliga’s court action against the municipality

Alberts says it became clear by 2020 that the municipality has collapsed on all scores, and that the provincial government, which has been under sporadic national administration, has failed continuously to effectively intervene in Ditsobotla.

“Sakeliga’s ‘special master’ case was launched in May 2021, with the view of not only enforcing existing remedies for state failure, such as Section 139 (7) of the Constitution, but also to invite the court to create a special remedy for failing municipalities.

“Namely, an independent special master (typically an audit firm) nominated by Sakeliga and appointed by the court, to take service delivery related revenue into a separate municipal bank account, and to administer such funds towards ensuring basic services and critical infrastructure upgrades, and that the paymaster should be in place for as long as necessary to ensure basic service delivery,” Alberts said.

Sakeliga’s paymaster case, according to Alberts, has been delayed time and time again by the respondent – Ditsobotla.

The matter is now likely to be heard early next year.

Alberts says the crisis in Ditsobotla has been exacerbated by the province’s dissolution of the Ditsobotla municipal council in September, with no accompanying proper administration.

“In particular, no administrator has been installed, the equitable share of the municipality has been withheld, municipal offices are closed, and in the midst of all this – ex-municipal councillors and the provincial government have been battling out who should maintain control of the municipality.

“All this compelled Sakeliga to launch an urgent application which was heard on Thursday, in which we seek to escalate Ditsobotla’s crisis to the highest level of intervention available in the Constitution, and also to authorise members of the community to do what is necessary in the mean time to ensure water supply is restored,” said Alberts.

Just how bad is service delivery in Ditsobotla?

The decay has now reached the stage of humanitarian and constitutional crisis, according to Alberts.

He says the towns of Lichtenburg and Coligny are receiving little to no water due to water not being pumped and reservoirs running dry.

“There are no municipal staff available to attend to breakdowns in the water and electricity reticulation networks.

“Many residents have been without water and electricity due to breakdowns in the network for weeks, while the Boikhutso township in Lichtenburg has been without water since approximately 22 September.

Small children have to fetch water over long distances from boreholes and the few working taps in the area,” Alberts added.

Service delivery challenges in the municipality have also prompted big cheese and milk factor Clover SA to relocate to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

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Meanwhile different political parties have, in recent weeks, being announcing their plans to contest the coming by-elections there.

Spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Kate Bapela confirmed to The Citizen that the elections are scheduled to take place on 14 December.

ActionSA chairperson Kwena Mangope said they will be contesting some if not all the wards in that municipality.

“ActionSA will be having a rally in Ditsobotla soon where I will be rolling out our by-election campaign.

“My priority is to have efficient, capable and qualified people administering our municipalities, and not only Ditsobotla,” Mangope said.

Speaking on behalf of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province, Leon Basson said the DA will contest all wards.

“Our task will be to bring the Anc below 50% and residents of Ditsobotla have the opportunity to remove the ANC and replace them with a DA government that could fix Ditsobotla,” Basson added.

The African National Congress (ANC) which retained the dysfunctional municipality with 51.58% of the votes during last year’s Local Government Elections said they are confident more than ever before that the party will restore order in Ditsobotla.

“The main problem which has engulfed Ditsobotla Local Municipality for more than a decade now, if you were to thoroughly analyse, it has less to do with political parties – but more about a syndicate of people who have for years made it their project to loot the municipality’s coffers to enrich themselves.

“At some point, there were two mayors, whips and speakers who would convene council meetings separately and what is of serious interest in these two groups is that – opposition parties were present in both cartels, not as spectators but role players and catalysts of the problem,” the ANC’s Tumelo Maruping said.

He said the ANC is determined to intensify its vetting process to assist communities to elect credible people.

“The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) has had numerous engagements with the community and is to convene more towards the by-elections.

“We are confident that, our people in Ditsobotla understand the origin of the problems which engulfed their municipality and are determined to work together with the ANC to restore order,” Maruping added.

A political analyst Prof Andre Duvenhage says he is not expecting huge changes in the coming elections saying the only probable biggest changes would be higher political apathy.

“I think the ANC may lose some support which will be an advantage to a party like the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and maybe under circumstances the Taxpayers’ Association may make some inroads, maybe even the DA and I think ActionSA could also win a few votes over,” Duvenhage added.

ALSO READ: Opposition parties vow to snatch ‘mafia and gangster-infested’ Ditsobotla municipality from ANC