Godongwana to hand over a revised Financial Recovery Plan the Ditsobotla Local Municipality

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Coming up at 10:00 past 10:00, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will hand over a revised financial recovery plan for the Ditsobotla Local Municipality today.

[00:00:08]He will also guide officials on how the plan must be implemented. Now, this visit comes after residents complained that national government intervention has not improved services. In fact, they say conditions have worsened since the municipality was placed under administration 8 months ago. Newsroom Africa's Victor joins us live from Lichtenburg this morning. Victor, so a government intervention hasn't worked. The Finance Minister now stepping in not only with this recovery plan, but also with guidance on how it must be implemented.

[00:00:43]>> Indeed, Michelle. And also previously, there were financial recovery plans that were put in place by the provincial government and also, you know, guidelines as to how the recommendations therefore, they need to be implemented and followed. But now, we are seeing the Finance Minister coming to hand over the revised financial recovery plan for the Ditsobotla Local Municipality, which needs to assist, among others, adequate service delivery to the residents of the Northwest province or the Ditsobotla Local Municipality. I'm going to speak to the MEC of Finance in the Northwest, Keneetswe Mosenogi. Thank you so much and welcome to Newsroom Africa. Let's talk about these financial recovery plans that are being put in place for the Ditsobotla Local Municipality to rescue its financial crisis.

[00:01:30]>> The financial recovery plan, you'd remember that the municipality was placed under Section 1395 of the Constitution, which was more a provincial intervention and it was also mandatory. We, together with also National Treasury, developed financial recovery plan, which we implemented.

[00:01:52]But we felt it was necessary as a the to also request further support from national so that they escalate the intervention to be section 1397 of the constitution meaning now it's a national intervention. So it means that the national the the financial recovery plan had to be revised to take into consideration that now it's the national that is intervening, but also with lessons learned from the previous financial recovery and what went wrong and [clears throat] in some of the areas while strides were made in some areas.

[00:02:30]So this it's as a result of section 1397 this in introduction of this financial recovery plan because it had to be reviewed. It still has a four pillars in terms of a governance, service delivery, financial management and um financial governance financial sustainability governance including the overall performance of the municipality and obviously the phases of implementation it's still a rescue phase um sustainability phase a rescue phase sustainability phase and um a and and and at the end of the day we exit the system to ensure that the municipality now it's sustainable it can carry on to maintain whatever foundation that the intervention has laid. Because Ditsobotla is one of the municipalities that was identified amongst 10 municipalities in the country that are highly in distress and you do recall that there was serious governance collapse in the municipality and hence a need for also national to come on board and assist the efforts of the province so that we work together to stabilize the municipality.

[00:03:47]>> And what went wrong MEC previously with the financial recovery plans that were put in place the provincial government and the lessons thereof as we are now moving into this revised financial recovery plan.

[00:04:00]What we did largely, we implemented section 139 5A um which was more directives. We didn't escalate to section 139 uh 5C, which means when we observe after assessment on the performance of the recovery plan, we were supposed to then take over the responsibility of implementation. But it's always important for any form of intervention that it must be well received by those who are in distress, meaning the council itself, administration of council. And there was a challenge also with ownership of the financial recovery plan. While council adopted it, but it did not take ownership and it was not institutionalized in council and which was the biggest problem because once you institutionalize it, it means each and every individual in the municipal council knows that whatever that they have to do, they are working towards bringing financial stability in the environment because the environment has been identified as weak and in distress.

[00:05:06]So, the performance agreements were not in place. If they were in place, they were not uh uh adequate to also integrate financial recovery plan objectives um amongst other issues as well at the capacity as well. You'd know that senior management in the municipality is not there.

[00:05:25]Yes, there is an MM, but senior managers across different departments who must also lead uh service delivery areas of performance in the municipality, they are not there. So, it becomes a bit of a problem where you are operating with junior people and at the management level, the environment is very weak and to carry and lead those who must drive as well the financial recovery plan. And you remember as a province, we had said that we are seconding people in different portfolios to assist the municipality because we know they can't afford. And unfortunately, at the time the council rejected also the support that we bringing from provincial government, people were employed in the provincial government to come because we recognize that they can't afford. So, that failed because municipality didn't accept and we can't then say we are employing you as a manager technically in the total.

[00:06:22]It must be cancelled still that adopts that you and approves that you you must be the manager. So, that was one of the weaknesses amongst other things and obviously, they didn't meet some of the obligations that we put in place. Even systems when we move out of an environment, we can develop policies, establish systems, and implementation protocols. If we move out of that environment, there's no one carrying on with that culture and ensuring that they comply with whatever that we put in place. So, there was heavy reliance on the province and it means our the intervention will not work because the intervention it's not here permanently.

[00:07:06]It's here only to stabilize the environment and stability must be carried sustainability must be carried by the municipality itself.

[00:07:15]There must be a culture shift and ownership.

[00:07:18]>> Allow me to chip in there. While there is these efforts to try and stabilize the mean the financial you know, situation of the municipality, there's also what one can be can you know, say it's a wasteful expenditure when the municipality has to rent out machinery and pay certain amount. Does that not also contribute to the financial distress of the municipality?

[00:07:40]>> It does contribute obviously because then the municipality ends up adopting an unfunded budget, committing themselves to projects that they can afford. And you also, like I said, you have a a challenge with managers that are not there because most of vacancies are vacant. So, there are no managers to drive the workforce to do certain carry certain responsibilities in terms of the work. And as a result, you find that they will outsource services that could have ordinarily been performed by municipal employees. And also, there's a culture of lack of performance because there's not been a strong management from different areas of responsibility within the municipality. And from our side, we've been assisting with with You'd remember at some point they did not do their AFS. We assisted them to do their AFS and table them. They managed to submit to the AG. We've been assisting them also with the budget together with the national cabinet representative.

[00:08:48]Yeah.

[00:08:48]>> Thank you so much for your time. I need to end it here. I can hear you. MEC for Finance MEC in the Northwest province as we wait for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to arrive.