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South African town collapsing in front of everyone’s eyes
Lichtenburg is collapsing in front of everyone’s eyes, with electricity outages for days, taps running down for weeks, and infrastructure crumbling at an alarming rate.
Lichtenburg is situated in North West province, South Africa and is the administrative centre of Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
The town was founded in 1873, and the diamond rush in the 1920s placed it on the map, with thousands flooding the area in search of quick riches.
The town is also closely associated with General Jacobus Hercules de la Rey, the assistant commandant general of the Boer forces.
It is a core agricultural hub in the North West province and lies in the heart of the maize triangle, the main maize-growing area in South Africa.
Cement production is another core economic activity in the area, with four major cement producers located there.
Lichtenburg used to be known as “pretty town worth a stopover for the quaint tranquillity, sense of history and calm”.
However, years of mismanagement and corruption have seen the town deteriorate to a level where basic services, like water and electricity, are in no way guaranteed.
Widespread plundering of municipal infrastructure has forced the Ditsobotla local municipality, which serves Lichtenburg and Coligny, to its knees.
“There is no sign of effective service delivery. Water and power outages are the order of the day while street and road infrastructure crumbles away,” the FF Plus said.
It said criminals regularly plunder and vandalise critical municipal infrastructure, such as power substations and water pumps.
A pervasive culture of lawlessness has taken root in the area, and it appears that the local police force cannot combat it.
“Over the years, several intervention efforts by the North West provincial government have had very little to no success,” it said.
“The conventional constitutional interventions aimed at supporting struggling municipalities fall far short.”
“These are doomed to fail when local politicians and municipal management undermine the efforts to turn things around.”
BusinessTech visits Lichtenburg
BusinessTech visited Lichtenburg and spoke to residents to see whether the situation was as bad as it seemed.
We found a town in a state of collapse, clearly mismanaged by its leaders. Residents’ stories ranged from sad to shocking.
A good example of the collapse is the town’s Cultural History Museum and town hall, which were damaged by a fire last year.
The fire partially damaged the town hall and completely gutted the museum building and its artefacts.
Private fire engines had to attend to the fire because the municipalities’ fire engines arrived without water.
When BusinessTech visited the Cultural History Museum and town hall in November 2024, a year after the fire, nothing had been done to restore the buildings.
The area, which should be the pride and joy of the town, was a mess, with empty beer bottles and litter scattered around.
Even more bizarre is the town’s licensing department building, where a part of the roof collapsed.
Instead of fixing the roof, the staff merely moved into the area of the building where the roof was still intact.
The town’s roads have also deteriorated enormously over the last three decades. Potholes are everywhere.
In some parts, tarred roads have deteriorated to such a degree that they have essentially become gravel roads.
Another problem is the Lichtenburg landfill site, where litter and waste surround the area and create a mess for residents travelling on the road.
Anyone who visits the once “pretty town worth a stopover for the quaint tranquillity” can see this mess. However, the problems do not end here.
Water and electricity supply problems have caused tremendous destruction in Lichtenburg and have chased many businesses away.
Residents highlighted that the poor and elderly are disproportionately affected by the town’s collapse.
The poor and elderly do not have the resources to protect themselves against electricity and water outages, which means they suffer the most.
Electricity problems
Lichtenburg residents told BusinessTech that the electricity supply is unstable and that outages that last for a week are common.
They blamed a lack of maintenance, incompetent municipal engineers, and not paying Eskom for the regular outages.
The residents said the town’s electricity infrastructure has not been maintained for the last 30 years and is currently crumbling.
An aggravating factor in the electricity crisis is that the current town engineers lack the skills to fix problems when they occur.
One resident said skilled former municipal engineers have offered to assist. However, they are chased away from the sites when they want to help.
Another problem is that criminals steal electric cables during prolonged power outages, worsening the problem.
The issue of non-payment made headlines in August when Eskom refused to fix a collapsed pylon and vandalised substation due to non-payment.
Eskom said the Ditsobotla Local Municipality owes it R1.2 billion and is not fulfilling its financial obligations.
The situation dumped the town into darkness for weeks after Eskom demanded payment before it resumed its electricity supply.
Due to the unstable electricity supply, many residents who can afford it have installed solar PV and battery backups to serve their electricity needs.
However, the less affluent residents have to deal with regular power outages which last days or weeks.
Water woes
Lichtenburg residents have suffered regular water outages for years because of collapsing infrastructure, mismanagement, and vandalism.
One resident told BusinessTech that Lichtenburg had around 17 functioning water pumps in the past to serve its needs.
However, only eight of these water pumps remain. The other pumps have been stolen or vandalised.
Only two or three of the eight remaining water pumps are working, which puts the town at constant risk of water outages.
In the past, Lichtenburg implemented water-shedding, where residents only had water between 5 and 8 in the morning and evening.
In low-lying areas, there was only around one hour of water per day. This was low-pressure and limited.
However, the situation has deteriorated, and water outages, which can last weeks at a time, are now commonplace.
Many residents have installed water tanks and boreholes to serve their water needs. Tankers also provide water to residents.
Last year, Sakeliga’s Christo Bester said Lichtenburg receives nearly no water due to water not being pumped and reservoirs running dry.
“There is no municipal staff available to attend to breakdowns in the water and electricity reticulation networks,” he said.
Refuse removal
Refuse removal happens more regularly. However, when BusinessTech visited Lichtenburg, it did not happen for two weeks.
Residents blamed the Ditsobotla Local Municipality for not paying the refuse removal staff, who then stopped providing the service.
One resident told BusinessTech that Lichtenburg used to have three fully functioning garbage trucks.
However, one truck disappeared, and another has broken down and has not been fixed. This means the town is left with only one truck to service residents.
Interventions to save Lichtenburg
In August 2024, the FF Plus in North West submitted proposals for a drastic cabinet intervention in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
Its proposals entail a new approach in which a national, interministerial intervention team steps in to get the situation back under control and restore sustainable service delivery.
Such an intervention team should consist of senior officials from COGTA, the police, the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
“It will ensure that the workers of lawlessness in and outside of the municipality are held accountable,” the FF Plus said.
“The residents of the greater Ditsobotla municipal area should not be left at the mercy of corrupt and criminal elements destroying the community and local economy.”
In September 2024, Sakeliga requested the National Executive to urgently fulfil its constitutional obligation to intervene directly in Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
“The National Executive’s intervention should replace the failed and misdirected intervention by the Northwest Provincial Executive,” Sakeliga said.
They argue the Northwest Provincial Executive ignored service delivery and limited its interventions to ‘plans about plans’ for restoring the municipal bureaucracy.
“The National Executive should now take direct responsibility for service delivery until a functional local administration emerges,” it said.
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