A new era of stability is the promise from freshly elected officials in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality, following a period of severe decay that brought service delivery to a standstill and sparked allegations of financial misconduct.
In a move described as critical for recovery, the council has re-elected Molefe Morutse as Mayor and Manana Bogatsu as Council Speaker. The appointments come after what was characterized as a “historic collapse” of basic services and political infighting in the North West province municipality.
A spokesperson for the elected council expressed a firm commitment to turning the page. “We will make sure that our speaker ensures that services are delivered to our people and also that the mayor as a champion of service delivery delivers services to our communities,” the spokesperson said.
The new administration has identified water and electricity as immediate priorities. Furthermore, it vowed to address past fraud allegations. “The focus will be on the fraud allegations [against] people who received money erroneously and fraudulently who was elected and shouldn’t be elected,” the council spokesperson stated, indicating that law enforcement agencies would be involved in the investigation.
However, the spokesperson also emphasized a forward-looking approach, warning against getting bogged down in endless recriminations. “We should start with the spirit of… focusing on taking service delivery to the people because if we going to get bogged down on what happened… we are just left with just over one year [in the term]. I don’t think we can finish that before the end of the year.”
The provincial government has welcomed the leadership appointments. A provincial representative described a recent meeting as “very successful” and “robust,” noting that all political parties had committed to cooperation.
“We are very happy. We hope that from now on there will be sanity in the municipality. They’ll focus on service delivery than any other thing,” the representative said, adding that the move provides clear leadership for the embattled municipality.
Support is also expected from national government. A national government spokesperson pledged to work with district and local municipalities to restore stability. “We are going to work with the district municipality and also the provincial… representative to ensure that we work together with them to strengthen collaboration both on our strength in terms of service delivery but also on governance matters,” the spokesperson said.
The council has assured residents that they will “no longer be subjected to the collapse of service delivery,” signaling a hopeful, yet challenging, path to recovery for the Ditsobotla Local Municipality.