Urgent call for Presidential intervention in 'collapsed' Ditsobotla Municipality

Sakeliga will ask the court to order President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet to take direct responsibility for the recovery of the Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West Province and fix the collapsed municipality themselves.

The latest of a series of litigation involving the municipality is brought on an urgent basis following the escalating state of decay in Lichtenburg, Coligny, Bhoikutso, Blydeville and surrounding areas.

The application forms part of a series of court cases by Sakeliga and its local partners over several years and stems from an order in October 2023, when the court ordered provincial intervention at Ditsobotla. Pursuant to the Constitution, provincial intervention is the second highest form of state intervention in municipal collapse.

However, because the provincial government has failed miserably with Ditsobotla, Sakeliga said it is asking the court to enforce the highest form of state intervention. That is, to order the president and cabinet to take responsibility themselves for the administrative and financial recovery of the municipality.

Sakeliga will ask for an order that the president and cabinet take over all the responsibilities of intervention from the provincial government and enforce and implement the approved municipal recovery plan.

Sakeliga also wants the court to be provided with a monthly report on the implementation of a recovery plan, which includes financial recovery. Sakeliga said should the president and the cabinet fail in their duties, it would herald an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

According to the organisation, the town is in a state of collapse, held together only by the communities and local business people. It pointed out that destruction of towns does not stop simply because of court orders – issued in an attempt to enforce the Constitution’s master plan regarding municipal decay – against public officials already in dereliction of their duties.

Sakeliga said, according to the Auditor-General, 30% of municipalities may not even be going concerns anymore – in some provinces, more than 50%. “If solutions against rural state failure are not found, this will trigger a chain reaction of destabilisation.”

It further commented that when smaller towns collapse, many impoverished residents migrate to regional towns. When those municipalities then start collapsing faster due to the extra pressure, the migration accelerates and shifts to cities.

This finally shifts the burden to urban administrations that already experience serious problems of their own, as already exemplified in parts of Johannesburg and Bloemfontein. “Without stabilisation of significant parts of the countryside, the serious destabilisation of all the urban environments in South Africa – and therefore the country itself – is a substantial risk.”

Sakeliga added that its most recent court action in Ditsobotla forms part of a strategy for a legal framework in terms of which local communities can escalate state failure as quickly as possible to the highest level of government for solutions – and in the absence of solutions from within the government, to solutions from outside the government.

“In the interest of rural and urban communities and the country as a whole, it is crucial to protect and expand the right of people to create solutions themselves when state failure leads to decay and collapse,” it said.

This municipality has been plagued by a collapse in basic service delivery, corruption and mismanagement. When President Ramaphosa visited this area in 2022, he commented that this was “a town taken over by gangsterism.” The application is expected to be heard on 9 May by the Mahikeng High Court. 

zelda.venter@inl.co.za