North West Premier Lazarus Mokgosi has assured President Cyril Ramaphosa and members of the National Executive that his administration is hard at work to improve the lives of the people of the province.
He said the province is aligning itself with the mandate of the 7th administration and to also implement the three strategic priorities of the Government of National Unity (GNU) as contained in the Medium-Term Development Plan.
Mokgosi was speaking during Ramaphosa’s engagement with the North West Provincial executive at the Rustenburg Civic Centre in Rustenburg on Friday.
The visit stems from the National Government Programme of Action of 2025 to foster and strengthen Inter-Government Relations to see to the full implementation of the priorities of the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP-2024-2029).
Mokgosi said that the province has been stabilised, in a much better and improved condition compared to how it was during the president’s first visit in 2018.
He welcomed the cabinet’s recent intervention at the troubled and corruption riddled Lichtenburg-based Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
“His excellency, we welcome and support the cabinet’s decision to put Ditsobotla Local Municipality under National Administration. We believe that this decision will send a strong message to other municipalities which are perpetual offenders in failing to account to residents and fail to abide by legislative frameworks governing municipalities,” said Mokgosi.
He reassured the president that his administration had successfully intervened at another distressed local municipality, Ramotshere Moiloa in Zeerust, following weeks of administrative turbulence.
The provincial government presented several service delivery measures that will be embarked upon to improve services to communities across the province.
“We have recently launched the fifth phase of the Accelerated Service Delivery Programme famously known as Thuntsha Lerole.nThis is to assist municipalities address various service delivery challenges afflicting their administrative and developmental trajectory through the deployment of Provincial Executive Representatives and Financial Recovery Plans,” remarked Mokgosi.
The premier also highlighted a growing challenge of the unemployment rate that is currently sitting at 54%, which is mostly affecting the youth and women despite the province being the largest platinum producer in the world.
“His excellency, as we meet here today there are looming retrenchments by Ferrochrome mines such as Glencore and Samancor who have issued section 128 into their smelters due to high electricity tariffs. A few weeks ago, I had a meeting with the CEO of Glencore who indicated that if there is no intervention by the national government in this regard, over five thousand people will lose their jobs. These job losses will have a negative multiplier effect in the economy of our province and in particular this district affecting over 50 000, and the impact will also be felt by labour sending provinces like the Eastern Cape and by extension the SADC region,” warned Mokgosi.
Despite the gloomy picture, Mokgosi listed several intervention measures to address the concerning unemployment rate.
“We are in the process of hosting a Provincial Investment Conference which could be an opportunity to collaborate and convert into a Presidential Investment Conference with special focus on the North West Province. There could also be an opportunity for a special Presidential Youth Employment Services Programme specifically for the North West Province to cushion young people against the high levels of unemployment in our province,” remarked Mokgosi.
