Picture: North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi/Facebook
By OBAKENG MAJE
26 February 2026- The North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi said they have declared 2026 as a “Year of Decisive Action to Fix Local Government and Transform the Economy.” Mokgosi said as this year is earmarked for Local Government Elections, they fully commit to support the Electoral Commission to conduct free and fair elections.
He further said municipalities as often mentioned is the closest sphere of government within reach of ordinary people and affects their daily lives directly. Mokgosi added that it is also the practical location of enterprises, big or small, domestic or international.
“The developmental mandate of local government is derived from Section 153 of the Constitution which amongst others places an obligation on municipalities to promote the social and economic development of the community.
“The duty of the local government to correct and restore its administrative functionality is important both for meeting basic needs of the people and creating enabling conditions for businesses to operate and create jobs,” he said.
Mokgosi said there is therefore a positive correlation between a functioning local government and a growing economy that works for all the people. He said as a result, it is their duty to restore the administrative functionality of municipalities by improving provision of basic services such as water, electricity, refuse removal and road maintenance.
“We are not unfairly fixated on weaknesses in local municipalities whilst ignoring the provincial government. We recognise that a seamless eco system of good governance is critical for all spheres of government to build a mutually reinforcing order of cooperation and interdependence. Provincial government is following the example set by the National Government to improve governance by turning the tide of poor audit outcomes with nine out of eleven departments receiving unqualified and clean audit outcomes in the last audit cycle.
“We can confirm that all senior managers in all provincial departments have complied with submissions on financial disclosures. This is aimed at promoting good governance practices with emphasis on ethical leadership,” said Mokgosi.
He said but critically to avert incidents of conflict of interest by deterring any possibility of malfeasance. Mokgosi said all members of the executive council have signed agreements with him to measure their performance and where there is dereliction of duty, political consequence management will ensue.
“Moreover, several cases implicating government and municipal officials are being investigated by law enforcement agencies while others are before the courts. Progress in relation to these matters will be announced by relevant units at an appropriate time.
“In the last financial year, we spent 98% of our provincial allocation by the National Treasury. This upward trend is being witnessed in the current financial year as we do not expect any money to be returned to the national fiscus,” he said.
Mokgosi said from the beginning of the 2026/27 Financial Year, they will introduce a province-wide Smart-Gov Monitoring and Evaluation Dashboard. He said all his departments will be integrated into a single executive oversight platform that allows real-time tracking of performance, expenditure and service delivery outcomes.
“The stabilisation of the provincial government has enabled us to focus our energies on municipalities. The encouraging signs of recovery as reflected in audit outcomes bear testimony to the ongoing commitment of the government to support municipalities through financial recovery plans, administrative support, planning and budgeting.
“As a consequence, municipalities such as Moses Kotane, Taung and JB Marks have improved from qualified to unqualified audit opinion. We will be dedicating our ongoing efforts in assisting Bojanala Platinum and Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipalities as well as Moretele Local Municipality to move from unqualified to clean audit outcomes,” said Mokgosi.
He said they also note the decrease in Disclaimer Audit Outcomes from nine municipalities in 2020/21 to only one in 2024/25, which is Ditsobotla. Mokgosi said, however, they are satisfied with progress registered so far following the introduction of a National Cabinet Representative under Section 139 (7) of the Constitution.
“While endowed with sufficient private sector investments across critical industries like cement manufacturing, regional agricultural companies, poultry and more. This municipality is a textbook example of how bad governance and instability can lead to value destruction in the local economy, deprive a municipality of revenue and consequently poor service delivery accompanied by high levels of unemployment.
“We will be introducing Section 154 of the Constitution in identified municipalities to strengthen their capacity in areas such as waste management and road maintenance,” he said.
Mokgosi said the Departments of Public Works and Roads as well Economic Development, Environment, Conservation, and Tourism will be seized with the responsibility to assist with the aforementioned. He said Ditsobotla and Matlosana Local Municipalities will be their starting point, where their cooperation will include working with SANRAL and Farmer’s organisations.
“Section 106 investigations into alleged acts of maladministration at City of Matlosana, Madibeng and Tswaing have been completed with remedial action plans being implemented. In relation to Matlosana, we are using other various legislative measures to stabilize the municipality.
“This is aimed at strengthening administrative stability and financial accounting. Further to this Eskom will assist municipalities grappling with load reduction with energy efficiency and demand management grants,” he said.
Mokgosi said the North West MEC, Oageng Molapisi will elaborate further on these intervention measures during the budget speech. He said through “Adopt a Municipality” initiative the Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality has officially signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Infrastructure South Africa.
“In the next 24 months the municipality will be working hand in glove with ISA to roll-out various projects to fast-track infrastructure development, enhance technical capacity, revenue collection, and address maintenance backlogs.
“The Provincial Local Government Kgotha-Kgothe resolutions are going to inform our Programme of Action for the 2026/27 Financial Year. This will be done through the establishment of monitoring mechanisms to promote and oversee the effective implementation of all our action plans,” said Mokgosi.
He said they have developed a performance dashboard to track the implementation of key deliverables in the form of various infrastructure projects. Mokgosi said in this regard, they are already making progress with the construction and completion of various water projects in our communities.
“We have recently introduced a contractor in Seweding village in Mahikeng to deal with challenges of sewer spillages in the area. We take this opportunity to profusely apologise to our residents for this setback, which equally has been as a result of various acts of vandalism and criminality.
“We have since reported the matter to the South African Police Service to follow all leads in arresting the perpetrators of this heinous crime. The upgraded Bulk Water Supply Scheme in Rustenburg Local Municipality, will increase provision of water services in the villages of Bethanie, Modikoe, Berseba and Makolokwe,” he said.
The Guardian 