Councillors have accused the Moses Kotane mayor of incompetence after millions in conditional grants were returned to Treasury.
The Bojanala district’s Moses Kotane municipality is again engulfed in political turmoil.
This time, councillors are demanding the head of mayor Nketu Nkotswe, accusing her of gross incompetence, failure to implement council resolutions and reckless staff transfers that have fuelled labour unrest.
Councillors table motion of no confidence
Councillor Fortune Luvuno, backed by fellow councillor Mookamedi Thale, has tabled a motion of no confidence, arguing that under Nkotswe’s leadership, the municipality has become a textbook case of maladministration.
Auditor-general (AG) reports and media coverage have long flagged Moses Kotane as one of the North West’s most underperforming municipalities. Now, councillors themselves are acknowledging the rot.
In a notice of motion dated 21 January and addressed to municipal manager Mokopane Letsoalo, Luvuno said the no-confidence motion, still to be voted on in council, was premised on the mayor’s failure to conduct oversight and hold the administration accountable for underperformance.
Her failure to do her duty had allegedly resulted in the municipality losing R24 million of conditional grants for service delivery in 2023, with the possibility of further losing the grant again this year because of poor spending.
Millions in service delivery funds lost
The money was returned to National Treasury after the municipality failed to spend it.
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This caused an uproar from some councillors, who were concerned about the return of the allocation when the municipality was desperate in need of services such as provision of infrastructure.
National Treasury withheld the transfers of equitable shares last December because of noncompliance.
Nkotswe had also allegedly failed to ensure critical vacant posts were filled expeditiously and allegedly failed to implement council and AG recommendations to address shortcomings in the municipality.
Allegations of corruption and collusion
Moses Kotane is notorious for corruption, including the failure to pay pension contributions of councillors and workers to the relevant pension funds.
Some opposition party members were alleged to be colluding with ANC councillors and officials to sweep matters under the carpet.
Opposition party members allegedly failed to perform their oversight duty because they benefited from the crisis, including not reporting the problem to their respective principals in the provincial and national offices, contrary to the official stance of their top leaders, who demand accountability from the executives.
Service delivery failures hit rural communities
This against the backdrop of service delivery backlogs throughout the area, particularly rural roads infrastructure.
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On the other hand, road D534 going through Mmatau village outside Madikwe town has been described by residents as a “road from hell” because Moses Kotane municipality had not repaired it since 1994.
The road was last maintained by the Bophuthatswana homeland administration.
According to villager Bruce Motlhoki, for the past 45 years the gravel road from MoubanePhiri T-junction up to Manamela had been troubling residents of Mmatau.
He said workers and pupils were unable to commute because vehicles could not move through the muddy and potholed stretch of road.
Another villager, Tsholofelo Kgobane, added that for years they have endured difficult situations because mortuary vehicles, buses, police vehicles, ambulances and other vehicles were unable to access their villages.
Many residents could not go to hospitals and clinics in the city due to lack of transport to and from villages.