Spat between North West premier, council leads to fears of unrest

A public spat between the North West provincial government and the Ditsobotla municipal council over the current administrator appears to be escalating, prompting fears of possible unrest in the area.

The Ditsobotla municipality, which includes the towns of Lichtenburg and Coligny, was placed under provincial care in September 2018, with the embattled administrator being formally introduced to council a month later.

Ditsobotla spokesperson Pius Batsile said the municipality was initially optimistic about the provincial government’s intervention, with the hopes that service delivery would be improved.

However, nearly a year later, Ditsobotla councillors have declared a dispute with the provincial government over the implementation of the intervention.

Ditsobotla councillors reportedly want the administrator to be withdrawn, citing nonperformance as their primary reason. Batsile said that on July 1, the council had to step in to arrange a payment agreement with Eskom over the municipality’s more than R430-million bill just to keep the lights on. He said the provincial government had failed to do anything about the mounting bill.

Premier Job Mokgoro made damning allegations against the council last week, saying it deliberately ignored intervention, even barring the administrator from entering the municipal offices.

What followed was a July 4 meeting that, according to reports, descended into chaos.

The meeting, led by MEC of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs Gordon Kegakilwe, was meant to look into issues at the municipality following intervention.

What instead occurred was a spat between councillors and Mokgoro, who was also present.

Batsile said they demanded Mokgoro account for his public statements, which he refused to do, forcing Kegakilwe to bring the meeting to an abrupt end.

Lichtenburg and Coligny were among areas in the province affected by unrest over the lack of service delivery.

The OFM News team visited the areas during the election period and saw some of the results of the unrest, including torched municipal offices in the Lichtenburg township.

– OFM News

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