Limpopo govt. dissolves the Thabazimbi Municipality

The Limpopo Department of Co-operative Governance is ready to defend its decision to dissolve the council of the Thabazimbi Municipality. Last week, the department initiated the process of placing the council under administration. For the past two years, the municipality has been operating with two parallel councils and two administrative managerial teams.

MEC for Co-operative Governance, Basikopo Makamu says the process to place municipality under administration will be finalised before the end of next week.

“They have 14 days in which to respond to the decision, either they conquer or they don’t conquer, so within 90 days the IEC should prepare itself and make sure it goes and runs elections and the new council should be elected. We are prepared for any legal battle for anybody who would want to challenge, a community member or a councillor,” says Makamu.

DA constituency head in the Waterberg region, Desiree Van der Walt says they welcome the decision because it was difficult to work with two parallel municipal structures.

“Although there is still a Constitutional Court judgment outstanding, we are in support of the MEC putting the Thabazimbi Local Municipality under Section 139 subsection 1 subsection c. Since the 2021 elections, the ANC in Thabazimbi never accepted that democratic outcome of the coalition and partnership that was formed between the other opposition parties. Since then, we have been struggling to do our jobs,” she says.

Process to place Thabazimbi Municipality under administration