The newly elected Mayor of Greater Taung Local Municipality in Taung in the North West, Itumeleng Maribe has vowed to turn the municipality around and deliver sustainable basic services to the people across the predominantly rural villages.
Maribe was elected earlier this month, replacing Mayor Tumisang Gaoraelwe who was recalled by the ANC in 2025 and subsequently faced a motion of no confidence.
Prior to his mayoral tenure, Maribe was the Member of Mayoral Committee responsible for Infrastructure Development at the municipality.
Speaking during a special YOU FM Newshour broadcast, Maribe said that the municipality has recently held its strategic planning session review where it engaged all relevant stakeholders.
The session was attended by traditional leaders of various communities within the municipality, government departments, councillors and others who contribute to the growth of the local economy.
According to the mayor, an undertaking was made to convene a local economic development strategy review.
“We are optimistic that the session will encourage our traditional leaders in Ga-Maidi, Ga-Mothibi and Ga-Phuduhucwana to share with us their economic strategies and plans on how to grow our economy and create job opportunities.
We also have people who approached us with various presentations on how to lure private funding, turnaround the municipality’s infrastructure and status quo and not to rely solely on the provincial treasury’s equitable share,” said Maribe.
The mayor has commended a healthy working relationship the municipality has built over the years with the three great local traditional leaders in the area.
“We enjoy a good working relationship with Kgosi Motlhabane of Batlhaping ba ga Maidi, Kgosi Tshepo Mankuroane of Batlhaping ba ga Phuduhucwana and Kgosi Ponatshego Mothibi of Ba-Ga-Mothibi, who also form part of our local municipal council to ensure that they are involved in all the decisions we make.
We are looking to convene again what is known as Intergovernmental Relations where all other stakeholders will be engaged,” added Maribe.
He has vowed to continue improving the municipality’s financial performance including striving for a clean audit after receiving a qualified audit opinion from the Auditor General.
“We are proud of the strides we have made of achieving an unqualified audit outcome from the Auditor General in the 2024/2025 financial year.
That’s an improvement we are really hoping to build on until we receive a clean audit which we believe is achievable because we have started working on correcting all the mistakes that the Auditor General has highlighted in the previous outcome,” explained the mayor.
