Moveable property belonging to Ditsobotla Local Municipality is being auctioned on 1 June 2023. This follows Obakeng Onkarabile Mogapi, who won a case against the municipality at Lichtenburg Magistrate Court on 13 January 2023. The court order was handed over in September 2021 to a Judgement of the Lichtenburg Magistrate court given on 28 September 2021, and the goods will be sold by public auction, to be held at 3 Beyers Naude Drive in Rustenburg by the sheriff to the highest bidder.
The court papers state that the auction property includes bakkies and trailers worth R15m and R20m. Ditsobotla Local Municipality has faced many challenges over the years, including disinvestment by Clover, the closure of several businesses, the appointment of non-matriculants and qualified people to management positions and the inability to collect revenue. The municipality failed to pay employee salaries for May.
The chairperson of Scopa at the Provincial Legislature, Job Dliso, said employees would only be paid their salaries for May and June 2023 if there was money. He further said other reasons include sometimes failing to meet constitutional obligations and divisions in the municipality. Dliso further said that Ditsobotla owed creditors R4.4 billion against the budget of over R500 million, which is also non-existent. The current council was elected late last year and led by Mayor Boitumelo Lethoko of the Patriotic Alliance.
