North West municipalities expected to be highly contested in LGE

North West municipalities are expected to be highly contested in the upcoming local government elections in November. The province is divided into 22 municipalities, four district and 18 local municipalities.

More than 70 political parties and over 50 independent candidates are expected to contest this year’s elections. Many municipalities in the province have experienced a collapse in basic services due to allegations of corruption, financial mismanagement and political instability.

There are currently four hung municipal councils in the province, namely Rustenburg, JB Marks, Ditsobotla and Lekwa Teemane.

The  North West province is a home to some of the country’s worst performing municipalities. Over the years, the provincial government has repeatedly intervened at many municipalities due to poor performance, deteriorating financial situation, and failure to execute their constitutional obligations.

Currently, five municipalities are under provincial administration and they include Kagisano Molopo, Mamusa, Maquassi Hills, Madibeng and Matlosana.

In an unprecedented move, the trouble torn Ditsobotla Local Municipality was placed under national intervention last year, due to ongoing governance failures, financial mismanagement and the collapse of service delivery.

Municipalities such as Madibeng, Naledi, Maquassi Hills, Tswaing, Mamusa, and Ditsobotla, are categorised as distressed.

The North West Cooperative Governance MEC Gaoage Molapisi is hopeful that their interventions will yield positive results.

“Where there has been some instability, either political or administrative instability, we managed to intervene whether the instability is brought in as a result of non-functioning of council, we have intervened. We have given directives to some of the municipalities that were not working through Section 1391a, where we said to the municipalities, we are giving you directives for you to attend to the following, and we even said this is the time frame.”

VIDEO | The provincial department has committed to support struggling municipalities:

A local government expert from North West University Dr Arthur Shopola says poor leadership and lack of consequence management are to blame for the dire state of municipalities.

“There’s poor quality of oversight, but also there’s a broken administrative system, if you don’t have consequence management, a system that is punishing those who have wronged or those who are found on the wrong side of the legislative prescripts governing local government, then you are bound to have a situation that you are having.”

According to Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s 2024/25 report, the overall audit outcomes of municipalities in the province have improved since 2020/21 financial year and from the previous year.

These improvements were recorded in over 10 municipalities.  However, improved audit outcomes do not translate to better service delivery as these North West residents explain.

“There are clear shortcomings in the municipality’s ability to provide residents with essential services, particularly reliable water supply and proper roads,” says one resident.

Another resident; “I have grown old under this government without seeing meaningful improvement. We still don’t have basic services, and I have even had to drill my own borehole for water.”

The North West Department of Cooperative Governance says only four municipalities were functional in the province during 2024/25 financial year.

“For the 2024/25 financial year in the province we had four municipalities that were functional and 16 that were at risk and were showing progressive improvements towards stabilisation in terms of key functional areas that our system has identified. And of the four that were being regarded as functional in that current financial year was Moretele, Bojanala, Dr. KK, and Ratlou Local Municipality,” says Chief Director for Local Governance at the North West Department of Co-operative Governance Keatlegile Mashigo.

Following the release of 2024/25 municipal audit report, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke made several recommendations to the North West provincial government to address persistent challenges at municipalities.

Maluleke has among others recommended that Premier Lazarus Mokgosi establish a monitoring and evaluation framework for all municipal support measures by the provincial Treasury and provincial Department of Cooperative Governance, with clear timelines and accountability.

-Report by Thabiso Moss