27 May 2026
The Tswaing Local Municipality in North West has failed in a bid to block action arising from a report into corruption.
The North West High Court in Mahikeng has dismissed a bid by Tswaing Local Municipality to block action on a report that found widespread maladministration and recommended the removal of senior officials.
The report by Tau Matsimela Attorneys was commissioned in September 2025 by North West Cooperative Governance MEC Gaoage Molapisi, following an instruction from cooperative governance minister Velekosini Hlabisi.
The report found that the municipality had prioritised salary increases and promotions over community needs, resulting in millions of rands in losses.
It also revealed that an “absolutely unreasonable” R47.6-million had been spent on litigation over five years.
Investigators concluded that Mayor Norah Mahlangu and the council had failed in their “sacrosanct fiduciary duties”, a failure that if left unchecked “will collapse the administration of the municipality”.
Following the report, Molapisi directed Mahlangu and the council to begin revoking the appointments of chief legal officer advocate Lesang Lobakeng, acting municipal manager Borman Phutiyagae, and housing manager Mogale Morwe.
However, the Tswaing council rejected the report and launched a two-part court application. Part A sought an urgent interim interdict to block immediate implementation of the recommendations. Part B is aimed at setting aside the investigation’s findings and the MEC’s directives.
Responding to Part A, acting deputy judge president Andre Henry Petersen delivered the ruling on 22 May, finding that the municipality had failed to prove immediate, irreparable harm would occur if the report’s recommendations were implemented.
The applicants needed “a well-grounded apprehension of irreparable harm, not a reasonable anxiety about future contingencies”, Petersen said.
He said “local government autonomy exists within a constitutional system of cooperative governance, not institutional isolation”.
The judge dismissed Part A, but left the central issue as to whether the investigation had been procedurally fair towards those implicated for the upcoming review in Part B.
Petersen ruled that this complex question, along with broader concerns about provincial oversight and constitutional rights, required “a full record and properly developed arguments” not available during the urgent hearing.
Benjamin Fihla, the attorney representing the municipality, Phutiyagae, Mahlangu, and speaker Sam Letlakane, told GroundUp that the matter is far from over.
“While the court declined to grant the immediate relief sought in Part A, the core legal arguments will now be the focus of the upcoming Part B review proceedings,” Fihla said.
“The report is subject to the court now,” he said, suggesting the MEC should “allow the legal process to conclude” before acting against the implicated officials.
The MEC and investigators have 30 days to provide a full record of the investigation proceedings, expected by late June or early July.
