Ditsobotla Municipality Fails Residents as National Intervention Begins

Ditsobotla Local Municipality in North West was placed under national intervention in 2025 after eight previous attempts to turn it around, including a failed provincial administration. The municipality, which falls under the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality and serves roughly 164,000 residents, has been failing for years, according to GroundUp. Water shortages, electricity outages, deteriorating roads and sanitation breakdowns have become a daily reality for communities around Lichtenburg and its townships.

In Boikhutso township, unemployed resident Kabelo Molefe earns a living hauling water for elderly and disabled residents, charging between R5 and R7 for a bucket of 20 or 25 litres. Pensioner Samson Ndlovu, who has lived in the Boikhutso hostel since 1982, says he has had no electricity or refuse removal for years. In Blydeville, pensioner Michael Cholo told GroundUp he has lived in the area for more than three decades and still waits at a communal pipe. A 2025 investigative report by the SA Human Rights Commission found the municipality was failing its constitutional obligation to provide basic services, violating residents' right to human dignity.

The numbers behind the collapse are stark. Ditsobotla's 2024/25 annual report puts daily water demand at 20-million litres against an average supply of 10-million litres, meaning rationing is practised across the municipality with little communication to residents. Treasury's recovery plan recorded electricity losses of 85% and water losses of 58% in 2024/25. In a May 2026 briefing to Parliament, the Auditor-General said the municipality met only 31% of its service delivery targets, a figure it could not verify, and noted that 0km of municipal roads were maintained and no potholes patched.

Financial mismanagement has compounded the service failures. The Auditor-General has issued disclaimer opinions — the worst possible audit outcome — for more than ten years, meaning it could not obtain enough information to express an opinion on the statements. The annual report states creditors wait an average of 3,188 days, nearly nine years, to be paid, far beyond National Treasury's 30-day statutory timeframe. Unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure consumed 77% of the operating budget, meaning more than R3 of every R4 spent on daily operations failed to comply with legal financial prescripts, supply chain rules or approved budgets.

The strain is visible in individual households and businesses. Great-grandmother Latia Masae, who relies on an old age grant of roughly R2,400 a month, said she pays about R25 every two to three days for water to be collected, leaving little for food. She has no toilet on her stand despite a promise made more than ten years ago, and nearby pit toilets are blocked and overflowing. Lichtenburg tailor Hitesh Kantilal said prolonged outages force him to spend whatever he makes on diesel for a generator, describing service delivery in the town as shocking.

Infrastructure has gone without substantive maintenance for decades. The annual report notes that large parts of the electricity distribution network have had no capital investment in over 30 years, with overloaded transformers and underground cables in service for more than 40 years. The municipal electricity department operates at only 20% of its required personnel capacity. Landfill sites are full, unfenced and non-compliant, waste collection lags because trucks break down, and illegal dumping is widespread. According to GroundUp, some companies have now stepped in to help repair infrastructure and sustain the local economy.