For nearly a decade, the Mogalakwena Local Municipality has produced poor audit outcomes.
A joint venture between government and the mining sector has helped a notoriously corrupt and poorly performing Limpopo municipality improve its audit outcomes.
For nearly a decade, the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in the Waterberg region of Limpopo has been known for producing poor audit outcomes, financial embezzlement, uncollected garbage, political infighting that culminates in the assassination of some municipal employees, and wasteful and irregular expenditures.
Mogalakwena mayor Ngoako Thulani Taueatsoala, however, said this is no longer the case after two mining giants – Valterra (formerly Mogalakwena Anglo American) and Ivanplats – embedded their social labour plans (SLPs) into the municipality’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
Municipality in distress
Taueatsoala on Friday said that when the current political administration took office in November 2021, the Mogalakwena municipality was in fiscal distress. He said the council had more than R2 billion in unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless expenditure, while salaries swallowed over 60% of the operating budget.
He said the white‑fleet and yellow‑fleet sat idle in workshops as contractors padded maintenance bills with no guarantee of quality. Grant‑funded projects, Taueatsoala added, had stalled as money vanished.
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The municipality has now achieved back‑to‑back unqualified audit opinions from the Auditor‑General of South Africa.
“The transformation, while still fragile, shows what can be achieved when the public purse is guarded by a culture of accountability and when private enterprise aligns its social licence with the community’s real needs,” said the 45-year-old mayor.
Mining companies improve service delivery
Taueatsoala said that after discovering that funds earmarked for the R180 million Masodi Wastewater Treatment Works had been misappropriated under the previous council, Ivanplats chose to get involved. The company injected R250 million into the project, which enabled its completion.
“Today, the plant not only treats sewage for thousands of households, but also stands as a symbol that misused resources can be reclaimed and turned into a public good,” said the mayor.
Valterra, meanwhile, has become the municipality’s most visible ally on the streets. Recognising that a decaying yellow fleet was crippling service delivery, the mine purchased a Jetpatcher – a specialised pothole‑patching machine – and a vacuum jet for clearing drains and sewage spills.
These machines now roam the town’s arteries, sealing cracks that once turned every rainstorm into a hazard.
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But Taueatsoala admitted that the road ahead was still long. He said water shortages persist, the fleet is not yet complete, and the municipality must guard against complacency.
He added that a healthy working relationship between the private sector and government can change the lives of South Africans.
