Teetering on the brink of collapse

All 25 municipalities in North West - most now teetering on the brink of collapse - will have to be rebuilt from scratch because of ANC infighting, fraud and corruption and a general flouting of the law.

This is the assessment of a confidential report by an ANC national executive committee task team sent to investigate political and administrative chaos in the province.

"The financial status of many of the local and district municipalities is so serious that a number are on the verge of bankruptcy and non-viability," the report, leaked to The Sunday Independent, says.

These include Ventersdorp, which the Auditor-General has said is "not a going concern".

The party sacked and suspended Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality mayor Themba Gwabeni last week, and more heads would roll, said task team leader Saki Mofokeng, adding that politicians would be forced to account for what had gone wrong.

The detailed account of how political power struggles in the past 15 years had affected the functioning of the province led to the disbanding of the party's provincial executive committee (PEC) last month.

"Most of the corruption, negative political interference and looting of state resources in the province can be traced to the PEC, directly or indirectly," the report says.

North West residents were paying a high price for "successive bitter and highly unethical battles" fought for political and economic dominance by different factions. This had led to municipalities breaking down.

The task team found that the "total disregard for the law" shown by councillors had been "aggravated by the fact that no action is taken by the ANC to discipline (them)".

A "deliberate blurring" of roles and responsibilities of politicians and officials had led to many instances of mayors irregularly appointing staff, overseeing procurement committees and assigning their preferred service providers - in direct contravention of the laws governing municipalities.

The report warns that unhappiness in communities - expressed in violent service delivery protests - will escalate unless there is urgent intervention from the ANC and the government.

"Communities are suffering the consequences of corruption in tendering that has little to do with providing essential services... councillor behaviour amounts to the 'looting' of state resources, which precipitates into financial mismanagement, and a municipality's inability to budget for... basic service delivery," it says.

Mass action would "result in the further implosion of governance and service delivery in the province".

Councillors' illegal actions included: nepotism and irregular staff appointments; inflating tenders for personal profit; awarding tenders to companies that funded political campaigns; accepting bribes and kickbacks from service providers; abusing council credit cards, vehicles and property; and selling council property.

In one instance, a R5m roads tender in Greater Taung Local Municipality was awarded to a consultant who was paid even though the work was not done, because the consultant had given money to the ANC "for some political activities".

"These are just some examples from a long list," the report says, noting that these municipalities suffered "massive service backlogs" as a result, mostly in providing water and sanitation.