Walkabout: President Cyril Ramaphosa visited multiple communities in Rustenburg and surrounding wards, meeting residents, ward councillors and traditional leaders. Photo: Supplied
The ANC, celebrating 114 years in existence this week, deployed its national officials to the North West, a service delivery hotspot, in a charm offensive meant to launch the party’s road to the 2026 local government elections.
It’s now or never/do-or-die for Africa’s oldest liberation movement, which celebrates its birthday this weekend amid calls for renewal in the face of dwindling voter support, corruption allegations in its ranks, a poor service delivery record and the new threat of the breakaway uMkhonto weSizwe party, led by former ANC president Jacob Zuma.
This week, the party crisscrossed the North West province, where it faces a myriad of challenges, with President Cyril Ramaphosa leading the charge, but staying clear of Marikana, where dozens of mineworkers were killed by police in a bloodbath that sucked in Ramaphosa, then a shareholder of Lonmin which owned the operation at the time.
Ramaphosa visited multiple communities in Rustenburg and surrounding wards, meeting residents, ward councillors and traditional leaders. He heard complaints about water shortages, electricity outages, potholes, and slow service delivery, and promised residents that the party would prioritise interventions. At several stops, he fielded questions directly from community members, recording grievances and urging residents to report issues through official channels.
Ramaphosa framed the party’s anniversary as a moment to recommit to citizens, adding: “We are going to be taking the ANC to greater heights because the birthday of the ANC gives us more courage, it infuses us with more energy to do more work for our people because the ANC exists for the people.”
Ramaphosa also stressed the importance of accountability in local government, telling residents: “If a municipality is put under administration, we need to know what the elected representatives and municipal officials are doing to earn their salaries.”
He warned that failure to deliver services “is an infringement of the basic rights of residents and our citizens more broadly”.
Ramaphosa emphasised that public officials must prioritise the needs of citizens over personal gain, warning that inadequate service delivery threatens fundamental rights.
“Those of us elected to office are meant to serve the people, not our own interests. When essential services fail, it violates the basic rights of residents and citizens. No one should go even a single day without access to running water while municipal authorities remain silent on when it will be restored,” he said.
Deputy president Paul Mashatile went to Ditsobotla Local Municipality, where he said political instability was now a thing of the past, with councillors working together to address longstanding service delivery challenges.
Ditsobotla had long been known as a problematic municipality but had now been stabilised, Mashatile told the Mail & Guardian.
“We have one mayor, one speaker, and the team is working together. In the past, there were divisions to the extent that there was parallel leadership in the town, but that has now been resolved,” he said.
“There has been an intervention from the national government, and a representative of the Cabinet is working with the municipality to ensure stability and to focus on improving service delivery.”
For many years, the municipality has battled service delivery challenges, including irregular refuse collection, water and electricity cuts, sewage flowing into residents’ homes, and political infighting over control of the municipality.
In 2022, the national department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) placed Ditsobotla under administration after ANC factional battles paralysed governance.
During that year, the municipality had two mayors, two council speakers, and two municipal managers occupying positions simultaneously. Two security companies were also hired by rival factions, a situation that culminated in a shooting.
At one point, ANC councillors carried knives into council meetings to protect themselves from one another. Rival factions routinely sabotaged development projects and service delivery initiatives implemented by the opposing group.
This instability led to the dissolution of the council in September 2022, followed by fresh elections in December. The ANC lost control of the municipality in by-elections, with its support dropping from 51% to 39%, resulting in a hung council. The party subsequently formed a coalition with smaller parties.
Auditor-general reports have repeatedly highlighted financial mismanagement in the municipality. The 2022–23 report found that Ditsobotla did not have “adequate systems to correctly record and classify expenditure” and identified more than R14.7 billion in unauthorised and irregular spending, up from R9.6 billion the previous year.
The report further noted that unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure was not investigated to determine liability. It also found that the municipality’s performance management system was not properly maintained and failed to adequately outline how performance measurement, review, and reporting should be managed.
Former mayor Boitumelo Lethoko told the North West standing committee on provincial public accounts in May 2023 that the municipality’s bank account balance had reached zero, leaving it unable to purchase basic supplies such as toilet paper.
Speaking to the M&G this week during his visit, Mashatile said the national government would support the municipality through Cogta.
He said the director-general was assessing infrastructure, roads, water challenges, and equipment needs to enable the municipality to improve service delivery, including grass cutting.
Mashatile said he was confident progress would be made now that the municipality’s leadership was working together as a team.
He added that with stability achieved following national government support , the municipality primarily needed resources. He acknowledged that past financial challenges had resulted in municipal assets being attached, further hampering basic service delivery such as refuse collection and grass cutting.
Mashatile also recognised ongoing challenges in the area, including water shortages, crime, and high unemployment, particularly among young people.
“We want to change the history of Ditsobotla from a collapsing municipality to one that is working. I have been saying to them that in the next few months, they must be the best municipality. The comrades are very determined, they are working hard, and we will be supporting them,” he said.
He added that the most important next step was ensuring that interventions were implemented with clear time frames and effective monitoring going forward.