Fix this collapsing municipality or pay up Mr President

In a significant legal escalation, Sakeliga, a non-profit organisation, has formally notified President Cyril Ramaphosa and several of his Ministers that it will seek personal cost orders against them.

This is unless they immediately assume direct responsibility for the recovery of the collapsing Ditsobotla Local Municipality.

“We have given the President, the Ministers of Finance, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and Water and Sanitation until 15 August 2025 to provide written confirmation of the steps they are taking or intend to take.”

This move comes amid accusations of “gross violation of their constitutional duties” and an “indefensible failure to intervene” in the municipality’s severe crisis which includes the implosion of water services, electricity provision, and basic administration.

BusinessTech recently visited Ditsobotla, where residents and business leaders reported worsening conditions that had become “unbearable” due to failures in water, electricity, sanitation, by-law enforcement, and road upkeep.

Having disclaimed audits for over a decade, the municipality has repeatedly been placed under mandatory intervention due to its inability to provide basic services or meet financial obligations.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the town before the last elections, and publicly stated that Ditsobotla is a “horror story”, “captured by criminal elements,” and that “money was just being siphoned out”.

The legal demand follows a protracted legal battle initiated by Sakeliga to address the “escalating collapse” of basic municipal functions and service delivery.

In October 2023, a court order compelled the Provincial Executive of the North West Province to intervene in Ditsobotla under Section 139(5) of the Constitution due to the “ongoing and accelerated state failure” in areas like Lichtenburg, Coligny, and Boikhutso.

The order specifically directed the Provincial Executive to implement a financial recovery plan and monitor the restoration of basic municipal services.

However, the situation has shown little improvement. The High Court, in a judgment dated February 20, 2025, criticised the Provincial Executive’s “improper opposition” to Sakeliga’s initial application.

“I cannot find any excuse in the conduct of the respondents”, the earlier order by the Mahikeng High Court read.

“The respondents were delaying the inevitable: trying to circumvent their constitutional duty to provide sufficient water to members of the public. The opposition of the application was, in my view, totally unnecessary.”

The court had previously highlighted the government’s constitutional duty to provide access to sufficient water as a basic human right, stating it is “unacceptable for Government entities to blame each other, contractors, or other entities.”

Provincial executive’s public admission of failure

A critical turning point occurred this week when Oageng Molapisi, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements, and Traditional Affairs in the North West, publicly acknowledged the provincial intervention’s failure and pleaded for national government intervention.

The MEC said that “national government must invoke section 139(7) and send an administrator from national (government) because from the province, we have dissolved the municipality, we have done everything.”

“Now we need the national government to move in. But when the national government moves in, like I said, don’t bring an individual to say he or she must come and be a municipal manager or an accounting officer… bring everybody so that you can address the problem”.

Sakeliga views this as a public concession that the Provincial Executive “cannot adequately exercise the powers or perform the functions referred to in sections 139(4) or 139(5) of the Constitution.”

Earlier this year, the African National Congress (ANC) in the North West said that they are mulling merging the Ditsobotla with those surrounding it after the 2026 local government elections.

“We have implemented all the interventions that you can think of,” said ANC North West spokesperson Tumelo Maruping, whose party has an outright majority in the province.

“If the interventions do not work out, post-2026, we are now looking at getting rid of that municipality altogether and merging it with other municipalities,” said Maruping.

Earlier this year, the National Treasury confirmed with BusinessTech that it is not considering a Section 139(7) national intervention for Ditsobotla at this time, citing the ongoing provincial intervention.

A Financial Recovery Plan (FRP) was approved in August 2023.

“It is therefore premature at this point to invoke a S139(7) intervention as the province has demonstrated that it is addressing the problem in the Ditsobotla local municipality,” said Treasury.

At this point, the national government said that it allows the provincial executive “time and space” to oversee the provincial mandatory intervention invoked.

Possible punitive costs against the President and his Cabinet

Despite the Provincial Executive’s public plea, Sakeliga points out that the National Executive, including the President and relevant Ministers, has not yet acted to implement Section 139(7) intervention.

Sakeliga’s legal representatives noted that the National Executive respondents have either filed notices to abide or withdrawn opposition to their clients’ application, with the Minister of Finance expressly confirming non-opposition to the Section 139(7) relief.

“Both the Provincial and National Executives are in fact in agreement on the need for intervention… However, it remains constitutionally indefensible that such intervention has not yet occurred”.

Sakeliga argues that this failure represents a “serious breach of constitutional duties” and a “systemic failure of constitutional intergovernmental cooperation and communication”.

They contend that the prolonged litigation has been “frustrated by irrational and unjustified opposition from the state” and has “deeply undermined the rights and dignity of the residents, businesses, and communities of Ditsobotla”.

Sakeliga has given the National Executive until 15 August to invoke Section 139(7) powers in Ditsobotla or face “punitive costs”.

It has also told the North West Premier and his council to drop their “unconscionable” opposition by 14 August or risk personal cost orders, accusing them of “repeating the very line of conduct” previously rebuked by the High Court.

The group warns that continued inaction by the President and Cabinet could spark an “unprecedented constitutional crisis” requiring “alternative and novel relief” to restore order.

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Videos and images from a recent visit to Ditsobotla