One of South Africa’s worst-run municipalities has 720 workers but only needs 450

The Ditsobotla Local Municipality in South Africa’s North-West province currently has more municipal workers than it can realistically afford to pay.

The municipality reportedly employs around 720 individuals, almost double the maximum of 450 municipal employees that is necessary for Ditsobotla to run.

This is just one of the numerous challenges faced by the municipality, which has been described as one of the worst-run municipalities in the country.

Ditsobotla was placed under administration in September 2025, with former Free State Provincial Government Director-General Kopung Ralikontsane appointed in the role.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Ralikontsane discussed the allegations of the existence of ghost workers amongst the municipality’s workforce.

“Up to the investigation that we have done now, we have not been able to finalise whether there are ghost workers amongst the 720 workers that we have,” Ralikontsane said.

“There were an additional 48 workers that were employed on contract, which we mostly terminated in December because we found no clear responsibilities that they were supposed to carry out.”

Ralikontsane said the municipality’s financial strain is directly tied to its bloated workforce, as more money goes towards municipal salaries and is pulled away from service delivery.

For years, Ditsobotla has been plagued by issues of frequent power outages and water shortages, in large part due to financial mismanagement, corruption and political instability.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the municipality in November 2022, he described it as “a town taken over by gangsterism”.

But despite dissolving the municipality’s council, the situation did not improve and Ditsobotla was placed under provincial intervention in October 2023.

After further deterioration and a court application from non-profit organisation Sakeliga, the municipality was finally placed under national administration.

Nearly eight months on, however, residents of the municipality said the situation still had not improved and had in fact worsened with regards to service delivery issues.

Finance Minister hands over new financial recovery plan

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana visited the Ditsobotla municipality on 29 May 2026 to personally hand over its revised financial recovery plan (FRP).

This revised plan was approved by Godongwana on 3 February, and includes detailed guidelines on the steps that need to be taken and how these must be implemented.

Ralikontsane said his administration team had already started to implement this plan back in February, replacing the FRP that was adopted during Ditsobotla’s provincial intervention.

“For a considerable period of time, the municipality was unable to pay workers,” Ralikontsane said. “From our side, we had to ensure that we ring-fenced the equitable share.”

“That way, we are at least able to pay workers, and we are also able to pay for emergencies in the municipality relating to service delivery interventions.”

As part of the plan, Ralikontsane said National Treasury and COGTA had given the municipality R30 million towards purchasing a new waste management fleet.

However, he said this will only give some slight relief, and explained that a more sufficient waste management response would require at least R110 million.

North West Finance MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi said the aim of the FRP was to restore financial sustainability to the municipality so it can continue governing itself without the need for further intervention.

“Ditsobotla was identified amongst 10 municipalities in the country that are highly in distress,” Mosenogi said. “There was a serious governance collapse in the municipality.”

“Hence, there was a need for the national government to come on board and assist the efforts of the province, so that we work together to stabilise the municipality.”

Asked about why the previous provincial intervention had failed, Mosenogi explained that it came down to an issue of ownership over the previous FRP.

While the Ditsobotla council had adopted it, they had not institutionalised it, meaning those working under the FRP were not made aware of its goals and their respective roles in carrying the plan out.