The North West government has appointed an administrator to the embattled Kagisano-Molopo municipality, following a recent decision by the North West Executive Council to place the municipality under Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution, which empowers a provincial government to intervene when a municipality cannot or does not fulfil an executive obligation in terms of the Constitution or legislation.

North West Cooperative Governance Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs MEC Lenah Miga said the council failed to carry out its executive and other legislative mandates as outlined in sections 152 and 153 of the Constitution.

The new administrator Sello Maroga will manage the overall administration of the municipality for six months until March 2023 and help fast-track the recruitment of senior managers, improve the financial systems, improve service delivery and attend to issues raised by the Auditor General.

Maroga has a Masters degree in Governance and has previously worked as CFO for the Ditsobotla, Tswaing and Mamusa municipalities, as well as the Department of Agriculture.

“We are confident that with the kind of expertise and experience that the administrator has in both local and provincial government and working with council and officials, he will be able to bring the much needed stability in the municipality. At the end of the intervention period, we are hoping to have a stable municipality that is able to provide services to its communities in line with Section 152 of the Constitution,” Miga said.

She also appealed that the council and officials support the intervention and work with the administrator, community and other role players to turn the situation around at the municipality.

“At the beginning of the week we received reports that there are houses belonging to Councillors and also the Speaker of the municipality that were set alight. We want to call on the community of Kagisano-Molopo to desist from acts of violence and to advise them to use proper channels to engage on issues that they are not happy with,” Miga said.