Division of Revenue Amendment Bill: Final Mandates

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson said that the purpose of the meeting was to consider final mandates, reports and outstanding Committee Minutes. In terms of the Committee resolution last week particularly Gauteng’s concerns to the National Treasury they’ve received a feedback from the National Treasury which indicated that the R569.2m had been approved which was no longer a concern. The delays had been part of the Province as had been suspected and the communication from Treasury also touched on some of the issues that had been raised as concerns from other Provinces but would confirm the Committee to the Gauteng one which had been resolved.

The Chairperson also informed the Committee that a letter had been sent to the Northern Cape to clarify the issues that they’ve raised. He personally had a meeting with the Chairperson of the Northern Cape Committee and explained the situation to him and also favoured them with the copy of the memo from Treasury as well as North West and all those that were affected.

Mandates to the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill, Bill 33 of 2012
The Chairperson said that there were two provinces, namely Gauteng and Free State could not send their mandates in time. He did not anticipate any changes with the Free State Final Mandate because its Negotiating Mandate was straight forward. In addition, the concern expressed by Gauteng had been addressed. For purposes of the record, the Committee had received 7 mandates and would only be dealing with those before them. The outstanding one would arrive at 2pm.

Eastern Cape
The first mandate was from the Eastern Cape and there was no delegate from the Eastern Cape to read that mandate. The Chairperson requested Hon. De Beer to read the mandate from the Eastern Cape.

Mr C De Beer (ANC; Northern Cape) read that the House voted in favour of the Bill and mandated the Eastern Cape permanent delegate to vote for the adoption of the Bill without further amendments..

KwaZulu-Natal
Mr A Lees (DA; KZN) read that the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature met on Tuesday 13 November 2012 and agreed to mandate the KZN delegate to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to support the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill, Bill 33 of 2012, and was duly signed off by the Speaker of KZN Legislature.

Limpopo
Mr M Makhubela (COPE; Limpop) read that Limpopo Legislature voted in favour of the Bill and the mandate was duly signed by the Speaker of Limpopo Legislature.

Mpumalanga
Mr Makhubela also read that Mpumalanga voted in favour of the Bill signed and the mandate was signed by the Speaker of Mpumalanga Legislature.

Northern Cape
Mr De Beer read that the Northern Cape voted in favour signed and the mandate was signed by the Speaker of Northern Cape Legislature.

Western Cape
Mr J Bekker (DA; Western Cape) read that the Western Cape voted in favour of the Bill and the mandate was signed by the Speaker of the Western Cape Legislature.

North West
The Chairperson read that the North West (NW) Provincial Legislature voted in favour of the Bill except for the part that dealt with amendments which there would be none because what was raised were just concerns that they would want to be more involved in the processes.  It was just a small confusion that the Committee could clarify with the NW legislature that it was not an amendment to the Bill itself. He had already indicated to his colleagues in the legislature that there should be greater cooperation between them and the Provincial Treasury because the MEC of Finance was already in that process.

The Chairperson noted that the majority of the provinces had supported the bill and that mandates from Gauteng and Free State would be submitted later.

Report on the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill
The Chairperson said that the report was circulated to Members last week for any comments, omissions and corrections.

Ms Wendy Fanoe, Chief Director: National Treasury said with regard to paragraph 5.4 on page 6 of the report it would be useful to add after 2012/13 Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) allocation that correction would be done through a Government Gazette in terms of section 15 of 2012 Division of Revenue Act because that was how the change would be legally enforced.

She also made another addition on page 6 that under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in relation to Provinces it would also be corrected for the Northern Cape because one of the departments listed under that appendix had a wrong name.

The Committee agreed with those inputs from Ms Fanoe.

The Chairperson said in page 9 paragraph 8.2 the submissions done early would expunge that paragraph before the report had to go for ATC. Under 9.1 the Committee was expressing its views not that of the National Treasury. He said that point 9.13 and 9.14 should be deleted. There were no recommendations in the report.

Mr De Beer moved for the adoption of the report with amendments.

Mr Makhubela seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

Outstanding Committee Minutes
Committee Minutes dated 2 November 2012
Mr Makhubela moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Mr Lees seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the minutes.

Committee Minutes dated 7 November 2012
Mr De Beer moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Mr Bekker seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the minutes with no changes.

The meeting was adjourned.