EDITORIAL COMMENT-. The Sedibeng District Municipality is quickly becoming a textbook example of administrative chaos, financial mismanagement, and outright absurdity.

Despite being required by the MEC for Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to implement a recovery plan, the municipality remains in financial limbo. Instead of prioritising service delivery, 75% of its budget is now being swallowed by salaries, with a disturbing increase in fruitless, wasteful, and irregular expenditure.
Adding insult to injury, the ousted (but newly re-elected) mayor Lerato Maloka reportedly spent a staggering R550 000 on a trip to Germany while the municipality struggled to pay employees. Even more bizarre are allegations that she sabotaged an official Mercedes-Benz by pouring brown sugar into its engine—an incident now under investigation.
If these scandals weren’t enough, Maloka was recently re-elected as mayor just three weeks after being ousted in a motion of no confidence. The same councillors who voted against her removal have now reversed their decision, raising serious questions about what could have influenced this sudden, drastic shift. Whispers of bribery have been circulating, though proving such claims may be difficult. Legally, bribery is a serious offense under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (2004) and the Municipal Structures Act (1998).
If any councillor accepted bribes to sway their vote, they could face criminal charges, disqualification from office, and disciplinary action.
Meanwhile, the dysfunction escalates: at a recent council meeting, a journalist was barred from photographing certain publicly elected officials during a public council meeting and later forcefully removed from chambers. The teargas incident of February 12 also led to an evacuation after someone set off teargas or pepper spray canisters inside the council chambers. Even more chilling are the reported death threats against the municipal manager. What is happening in Sedibeng? This is no longer just a case of poor governance—it is a full-blown crisis!