Picture: The executive mayor of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, Motseokae Maje
By REGINALD KANYANE
28 January 2026- The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality has been declared a functional municipality. This comes after it has stabilized its financial situation.
The Municipal Manager of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, Ronnie Jonas said in recent years, the municipality was regarded as dysfunctional, operating on an unfunded budget and at times had its equitable share grants withheld by the national treasury. Jonas said the municipality was also placed under section 139 (1) of the constitution.
“The section dictates that when the municipality cannot or does not fulfill an executive obligation in terms of legislation, the relevant provincial executive may intervene. The provincial treasury department has now removed the municipality from the financial recovery state.
“This as the municipality is now operating on a funded budget. The municipality is also able to utilize its allocated capital grants. We attribute this to hard work and dedication by municipal officials. We have done very well in terms of the first Municipal Infrastructure Grant,” he said.
Jonas further said for the first six months period, the municipality is currently standing at 78% of the allocated amount. He added that with regard to the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG), the municipality has also tremendously improved and is currently standing at 81% of the allocated grant.
“We are also doing well in terms of the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) for the first six months. The municipality is currently standing at 41% of the allocated grant by the national government,” said Jonas.
Meanwhile, the executive mayor for the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, Motseokae Maje said the achievements of the municipality are in line with their objectives set, when they resumed office. Maje said they are proud that through these years, they have registered some progress with regard to the achievement of these objectives.
“Amongst others we have seen our municipality technically being removed from a financial recovery to a municipality, now financially stable. We are further proud that we have also improved our delivery capacity. We have realized over the past two years our ability to utilize our conditional grants to the extent that we have been awarded some additional funding during the course of the financial year.
“Authorities within the municipality have also reported a significant improvement on the audit outcomes of the 2025/2026 financial year,” he said.
The Guardian 