COGTA Quarterly Performance, with Deputy Ministers

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Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

21 August 2019
Chairperson: Ms F Muthambi (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Circular Declaring Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act Invalid

The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) reported 75% achievement of targets. Five out of 20 were unachieved. These were the number of municipal report cards. The target had been reviewed and this was no longer a target. The ‘artisan placement’ budget had to be re-prioritised as municipalities could not absorb the artisans after one year. The same applied to the MISA young graduates programme. The number of municipalities supported with framework contracts was not met due to the election period. The support to municipalities in the compilation of development plans was not met due to delays and the consultation meetings. MISA had spent R95m of the allotted R103m budget and the variance was mainly due to delays in using the training budget.

Members said South Africa had a backlog of unemployed people and asked when MISA was going to absorb them into work opportunities. They asked what procedure had to be followed for a department to be able to remove a target that had not been achieved and if the removal of the report card was justified. There was a need to measure MISA’s performance They asked if the Ministry would revisit privately owned property on which people were residing, not being provided with municipal services. Members asked whose responsibility was it to check that service providers were paid on time. Was there a government institute to empower municipal officials so service delivery could improve. Members requested detail on all the services contracted in the R33m spent on contracts for services.

The Director General pointed out that municipalities sometimes did not wait for the concurrence of the Minister before employing a municipal manager and this gap needed to be closed to prevent errant municipal managers moving from one municipality to another. It was noted that there was a mindset in South Africa that people did not want to go to rural areas and so they declined technical skills posts in these areas.

The Department of Traditional Affairs (DTA) reported the underspend for Quarter 1 was R40.7m or 25% of the allotted R163.3m. The transfer to the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Commission was R45m. The Auditor General had flagged two matters. One was that the National House of Traditional Leaders should be audited separately. The other was that details of all changes should be included in the 2018/19 Annual Report and therefore there would be 20 to 30 additional pages in the Annual Report.

Members asked about NHTL managing its own finances rather than the DTA, if the identification of Khoi-San chiefs was happening, about the cash flow statement of the Department, how many women were in senior management positions and when DTA would submit its pos- audit action plan.
 
Deputy Minister Obed Bapela explained that once the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill was signed into law the Commission would deal with all claims of chieftaincy. There were pastoral communities but also hunting nomadic communities. This would be difficult and complex and the land claims that would arise would also need to be managed.

The Chairperson noted the absence of the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) post audit action plan because it had not handed in its audited financial statements on time and this was a concern for the Committee. She added that the assessment term ‘partial achievement” was not acceptable to the Committee. These areas as well as the compliance of municipalities with legislation were matters the Deputy Minister had to raise with the Minister.

DCOG said that the Department had only fully achieved its targets for Local Government Support and for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in Quarter 1. It said the low spending in the first quarter would speed up once municipalities completed their budgets.

Members remarked there appeared to be a general culture of missing deadlines. Members wanted an in depth discussion on the Community Works Programme (CWP). Who assessed and monitored the performance of the implementing agents of the Community Work Programme? Members asked for the criteria used to identify municipalities which had revenue collection challenges and requested a report on municipalities undergoing intervention. Members said there had to be consequence management for the late submission of annual financial statements for auditing.

Deputy Minister Parks Tau said COGTA would be spending time looking at the Community Works Programme model, the formula and how outputs were measured, as well as the accountability of NPOs as implementing agents. This would include discussions with Treasury and the Auditor General (AG). He noted the late submission of the annual financial statements for audit and said internal controls and supply chain management (SCM) needed to be improved. COGTA was remodelling, in line with the State of the Nation Address (SONA), a distinct model of support for local government centred around districts. This applied to all of government not just COGTA.

The Committee noted that the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill introduced in February had not yet been revived which affected its programme to process it. The Constitutional Court had refused an extension of the 24 month hold on the declaration of invalidity of the Municipal Systems Amendment Act of 2011 as of 9 March 2019 so the provisions of the original Act were now in effect. The Deputy Minister said that this had been communicated to municipalities. 

Meeting report

Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) 1st Quarter Performance 2019/20
Mr Ntandazo Vimba, MISA CEO, spoke to its performance, especially recruitment and progress on the post audit action plan. He said five out of 20 targets were unachieved, yielding a 75% performance for MISA. The five unachieved targets were:
1) the target number of municipal report cards was not achieved. The indicator had been reviewed and this was no longer an inidicator and the chief director had been assigned to another programme.
2) the ‘artisan placement’ budget had to be re-prioritised as the municipalities could not absorb the artisans after one year.
3) the same issue as in point 2 applied to the MISA young graduates programme
4) the target number of municipalities supported with framework contracts was not met because of the election period.
5) the support to municipalities in the compilation of development plans target was not achieved because of delays and consultation meetings.

On financial performance, MISA’s budget was R103m and MISA had spent R95m and the variance was mainly due to delays in the training budget.

Discussion
Ms M Kibi (ANC) said South Africa had a backlog of unemployed people and asked when MISA was going to absorb them into work opportunities.

Mr K Ceza (EFF) asked what happened to municipalities which MISA was giving support to, yet infrastructure support funds were not being used. He used JS Moroka and Emakhazeni municipalities as cases in point. He asked if the Ministry would revisit the issue of privately owned property on which people were residing, not being provided with municipal services. He asked what interventions could take place for this.

Mr C Brink (DA) asked what procedure had to be followed for a government entity to be able to remove an indicator from the Annual Performance Plan which had not been achieved. He asked if the removal of the report card was justified.

Mr B Hadebe (ANC) agreed saying there was a need to measure MISA’s performance. He asked when vacant posts would be filled and whether it would be by the next quarter.

Mr G Mpumza (ANC) asked what MISA’s timelines were for filling vacant posts, because the lack of filling these posts were critical to municipalities’ ability to manage infrastructure development and maintenance by having the proper skills available. MISA’s report reflected that very few technical skills posts were filled. What was the role of technical support? Outsourcing by municipalities indicated a lack of in-house technical expertise. In trying to achieve parity for women in senior positions, the report reflected an eight percent difference. He asked if filling one of the posts would achieve the 50% target. He asked about the role of MISA in the water shortages in Amathole District Municipality.

Ms M Tlou (ANC) said the Department was still having trouble adhering to the mandate to pay suppliers within 30 days. Whose responsibility was it to check that service providers were paid on time. On the poor performance of some municipalities, she heard that some managers resigned because of their poor performance but then moved to another municipality. These were the things that made municipalities fail. She wanted to know what criteria was used to provide funding as sometimes municipalities sent funds back to Treasury. She asked if there was a government institute to empower municipal officials so that service delivery could improve.

Ms D Direko (ANC) asked how MISA measured its progress as there were still challenges in the provision of water services. She asked if employment by municipalities was checked. She asked what other measures MISA was doing to ensure that municipalities had the necessary skills.

The Chairperson asked for a timeline and details of the process to recover irregular expenditure monies. She commended MISA for paying its creditors within 30 days. She noted progress made in MISA's turnaround. However the report did not reflect disability targets and MISA needed to monitor the points highlighted on the yellow page of the report.

On the filling of vacancies, Mr Vimba replied the vacancies had been advertised and one of the four vacancies was filled. Offers were made to engineers and some accepted while others did not accept the job offers. There were other posts which supported the technical posts but these had been made the last priority to be filled. The target was to fill posts that needed to be filled in this current quarter.

On municipalities failing to spend Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG), MISA had come up with initiatives to address this. Initially it had been if the money was not spent, then the money was reallocated to other municipalities that did spend their grants. However this impacted on service delivery and the matter was reviewed. MISA was now looking at converting the direct grants to indirect grants. The main reason for not spending the grant was procurement and MISA had a stream of engineers pre-allocated for procurement matters.

On service delivery to residents on private property, he could not provide a response because the matter had not been looked into.

On changes to an Annual Performance Plan (APP) indicator, there had been an opportunity provided to review and refine the APP and this removed indicator would now be found within a new inspectorate which would implement the report card. Work would start in KZN as a pilot study.

Mr Vimba replied that a MISA team was stationed at Amathole. There was also, of course, the challenge of drought. The most recent challenge there was due to a labour strike which resulted in sabotage. These labour issues were resolved.

On paying creditors within 30 days, the Department was responsible for monitoring that this happened. The target for the percentage of women in senior management was 50%.

Mr Vimba explained that COGTA had a database of managers that had been suspended or dismissed which prevented their moving from municipality to municipality. On the criteria to support municipalities, COGTA did have a master plan for water. There was a capacity building programme for city managers and CFOs in the Department in collaboration with SALGA. MISA did have measures to measure progress and one example was the percentage loss of water through water leakage.

On the organogram of municipalities where MISA wanted them to absorb workers, adverts were made indicating municipalities that had challenges in operations and maintenance. The Department would indicate that they had a programme on condition that that municipalities had to absorb the workers. MISA also had training programmes with municipalities.

Mr Vimba replied that MISA did have a plan and a target for people with disabilities.

Ms Fezeka Nombembe, CFO, replied that the irregular expenditure was mainly SARS penalties which arose when MISA took over responsibilities from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) which amounted to R700 000 of the R1.5m in total. These penalties arose from a learnership group taken over from DBSA and which MISA intended to write off. Some expenditure was by an official and MISA was in the process of recovering the money from him and implementing consequence management on him. Other expenditure was because CWP employees took longer to report they had found employment elsewhere. Some applied and got jobs in municipalities but did not inform CWP which meant they were double dipping. Controls had now been put in place to prevent such an occurrence.

Mr Dan Mashitiso, Director-General of the Department of Cooperative Governance, pointed out that municipalities did not wait for the concurrence of the Minister before employing a municipal manager and this needed to be tightened up. There was a gap where a municipality would recommend someone to the MEC. The MEC had to get the Minister's concurrence yet in some instances the MEC appointed the person without vetting. When COGTA heard about the matter, the appointee was already in place and working. This gap in the system needed to be closed.

The Chairperson commented that there was a need to emphasise norms and standards and there should be consequence management.

Ms Kibi said that people in some areas without water were buying water with their grant money.

Mr Vimba replied he would have to look into why people were having to buy the water. In Abaqulusi in KZN, three projects were being implemented for water and sewerage.

Inkosi B Luthuli (IFP) asked what the plan going forward was about recruitment.

Mr Vimba replied that the Department did have a plan and this could be shared with the Committee. There were nine assistant programme manager posts. These were not technical posts. Technical posts were prioritised and after that the assistant posts would be filled. For the engineering posts, MISA was engaging with Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA). Some posts were filled through head-hunting. The posts were for a new structure that was approved in 2017.

Mr Brink reiterated his question on the report card. Was a new version found in the inspectorate and had a target already been created for it.

Mr Vimba replied that MISA had already created it in their new APP as part of the Infrastructure Inspectorate.

Mr Brink pointed out that if senior management contracts had been done without the Minister's concurrence, did this not mean that the contacts were invalid.

Mr M Hoosen (DA) wanted a listing of all the services that were contracted in the R33m contracts for services. The AG had noted that the Department had failed to publish tenders for the contract that had been awarded.

Mr Vimba replied he would share the contract information with the Committee. The contracts dealt with infrastructure projects for roads and boreholes. The MISA website reflected one published tender.

Deputy Minister Obed Bapela apologised for late arrival as they had been delayed in a cabinet meeting. He remarked that in South Africa there was a mindset that people did not want to go to rural areas and so they declined technical skills posts in these areas.

Department of Traditional Affairs (DTA) 1st Quarter Performance 2019/20
Mr Mashwahle Diphofa, DTA Director General, said the budget was R163.3m and transfers to the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Commission accounted for R45m. The projected underspend for the first quarter was R40.7m or 25%. There was R2.3m underspend on Compensation of Employees as the funds were to be used for the Commission on Khoi-San Matters.

DTA had a clean audit for the past three years. The AG had raised a concern, saying that the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL) did not comply with its own 2009 Act which requires the House to compile its own set of Annual Financial Statements (AFS) and that it should be audited separately. Once the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill was signed, there would be no need for their audited financial statements to be part of DTA but in the interim, application had to be made to produce audited financial statements. The other was that the AG wanted details of all changes included in the Annual Report and therefore there would be 20-30 additional pages in the Annual Report.

Discussion
Mr Hoosen asked how it could be justified that there was no accountability for the NHTL since 2009 and that the solution proposed was to take NHTL out of the legislation so that DTA was not compelled to be accountable for it.

Mr Hadebe requested another column in the report which reflected the planned or budgeted year to date spending so that members could assess the DTA spending pattern.

Mr Mpumza asked why there was no movement on expenditure.

Ms Kibi asked what the Commission on the Khoisan was doing because in her experience in one village there were two chiefs. Did the Commission manage to get the real chiefs as the Committee needed to know who the real chiefs and kings were?

The Chairperson requested the cash flow of DTA. The report reflected nothing about payments within 30 days nor on recruitment and the staff establishment. Were all positions filled and how many women were in senior management positions? When was DTA submitting its audited financial statements and post audit action plan?
 
Mr Diphofa, DTA Director General, replied that the Annual Report was ready and would be submitted to the Ministry the following day. He explained that the NHTL was a sub-programme in the DTA budget structure. There was no transfer to the NHTL and the finances were managed by DTA and were audited as part of DTA throughout the years.

The Director General replied that there was no movement on expenditure on the , there were two components as the term of office of the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims (CTLDC) had come to an end. One was the compensation of employees until the end of the commission’s term and the other component was the appointment of the Commission on Khoi-San Matters. Therefore there had been no movement on compensation of employees but there was movement on goods and services, mainly on legal fees for litigation. There was a gap in the state of leadership in the Khoisan communities because the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB) establishes the Commission on Khoi-San Matters but the commission cannot be established as the TKLB is not signed into law yet. Hence the confusion as everyone claims chieftainship.

On recruitment to key posts, there were two vacant currently. One was director of legal services and the other was the executive support manager in the Office of the Chairperson in the NHTL. The target had been achieved for the employment of people with disabilities.

Mr Matsobane Aphane, DTA CFO, replied that DTA did a financial report to the Treasury on a monthly basis and these reports indicating cash flow could be made available to the Committee. DTA also reported to Treasury monthly on the 30 day payment deadline. DTA had made payments within 14 days. He would attach a statement on the financial performance.

On the NHTL, Mr Aphane explained that in terms of legislation it was supposed to compile audited financial statements. DTA had engaged with the AG from the perspective of looking at value for money as the NHTL allocation was only R18m. If the NHTL had to do an audit of its own financial statements, it would not be cost effective. In addition the NHTL did not have its own separate bank account. The AG has agreed but DTA also approached Treasury to tell them DTA was supposed to comply with having the House’s audited financial statements. The Office of the Accountant General has said there was no framework that was prescribed for the National House to report on.

The Chairperson said the post-audit action plan should have been part of the briefing. Was it developed?

Mr Vimba replied it had been done.

The Chairperson asked why it was not attached.

Deputy Minister Bapela said the post-audit action plan would be delivered. Once the Khoisan leadership bill was signed into law the commission would deal with all claims of chieftaincy. There were pastoral communities but also hunting nomadic communities. This would be difficult and complex and the land claims that would arise would also need to be managed. There were five groups pooled together under the term Khoi-San.

The Chairperson said the role of the NHTL was a matter that needed to be discussed as the Committee had to give pronouncements on the Final Report by the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture that deals with the Ingonyama Trust and the report of the High Level Panel on Assessment of Key Legislation led by Mr Kgalema Motlanthe as well as the distinction between indunas, headmen and chiefs.

Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) 1st Quarter Performance 2019/20
The Chairperson noted that there was no post-audit action plan in the Department’s report because DCOG had not handed in its audited financial statements in time nor its Annual Report in the past. The period from 8-18 October was earmarked for the Committee to engage with the Department on its Annual Report and this was a concern for the Committee. She added that the assessment term ‘partial achievement” of target was not acceptable to the Committee. These areas as well as the compliance of municipalities with legislation were matters the Deputy Minister had to raise with the Minister.

Mr Dan Mashitiso, Director General, replied that the report only spoke to the audit outcomes for 2018/19 and not for the First Quarter of 2019/20.

The Chairperson said the Committee could not wait until the end of the financial year and wanted to engage now rather than be surprised at the end of the year.

Mr Mashitiso said that all references to partial achievement in the report should then be read as non achievement. In summary, the Department had therefore achieved only the targets for Local Government Support and for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) targets. The spending would speed up once municipalities completed their budgets. Prior to that the Department could not give the municipalities money because Treasury provided a schedule of funds for municipalities.

Ms Dorothee Burger-Snyman, DCOG CFO, said DCOG was not able to comply with the payment within 30 days rule due to the large volume of travel agent invoices that needed to be analysed and assessed as well as the audit process and the extension given for the production of the financial statements. As DCOG was spread across five different buildings, this also led to delays in the processing. There was no unauthorised expenditure this quarter for compensation of employees. DCOG had dealt with Treasury about the unauthorised expenditure from 2006/7 but could not remove it from the books because it had to come before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA). Computer services in the form of software licences and maintenance was a large expense. There were contingent liabilities for the court case in which the Seriti Institute had taken DCOG to court over the appointment of CWP implementing agents. The CFO said that DCOG was progressively clearing the irregular expenditure amounts over the years and seeking condonation.

Discussion
Mr Brink said there appeared to be a confusing explanation about the work opportunities provided by the CWP where the report stated that work opportunities target was exceeded by 11 103 while at the same time savings on the project were generated.

Mr Hoosen said there appeared to be a general culture of missing deadlines. For example a Bill was supposed to be tabled in June but was only tabled in July. He asked when diagnostic reports were sent to municipalities. He asked how the revenue plan could be included as a target when the plan had already been done. He requested an in depth discussion on the Community Works Programme (CWP). He asked if DCOG had done a study on the CWP and if so could it be shared with the Committee so that the Committee could assess it benefits and value for money.

Mr Ceza asked what the disputes on kingships were where R230m had been spent on legal advisors. He asked if there were cases where constitutionally there is no clarity on a king's powers and functions and which then lead to clashes between actual and customary law. What was to be done when the Constitution superceded customary law?

Mr Hadebe noted that the Goods and Services component of the CWP budget was R4b but only 16.1% was spent. Was this planned expenditure? He wanted clarity on the support programmes to understand them.

On the poor revenue collection by municipalities, Ms G Opperman (DA) asked if the 35 municipalities that received assistance with revenue collection showed improvement in their credit management and financial performance as a result of the programme. Was there an exit management strategy in place for the Community Work Programme. Who assessed and monitored the performance of the Community Work Programme implementing agents? Ward Committees were important for public participation so it was concerning that DCOG reports that only 28 municipalities reported functioning ward committees. Will there be a relook at functional and dysfunctional ward committees? What was the role of Community Development Workers (CDW) within ward committees and to whom do they report? Why was DCOG’s internal audit not finished on time?

Mr Mpumza said for better oversight DCOG should indicate which municipalities received support for integrated township development specific revenue plan implementation and training in combating corruption in government from DCOG. No municipalities were placed under administration in the quarter. He asked what progress was made with those municipalities already under administration and when their administration would be suspended.

Ms M Tlou (ANC) asked if DCOG had identified the challenges affecting the CWP. She asked if there was consequence management for those NPOs guilty of irregular expenditure and did DCOG have a model for an exit strategy?

Ms Kibi said that DCOG had scored zero percent on “achieved” targets and 100% on “partial achievements”. She asked if the DCOG presentation was only on urban areas and not rural areas. She asked why there was no attachment on DCOG cash flow in the report. There had been unauthorised expenditure of R1,123m in 2006/7. This was still reflected in the books and should have been condoned and cleaned out, reflecting badly on the competency of the current officials.

Ms Direko asked what criteria were used to identify municipalities with challenges in revenue collection? The CWP was a time bomb and asked how the project was managed. Was it an employment or an empowerment programme? Parliament had enacted a new minimum wage level yet the stipend was not at the minimum wage level. She asked what the implication of partial achievements were for its performance. She wanted a detailed report on the CWP and its challenges by the next meeting with DCOG. The report contained nothing on local economic development, yet municipalities were supposed to be the hub for LED.

On not meeting deadlines, Mr Mashitiso replied that it was a problem but one needed to take into account the interaction with municipalities meant delays occurred. He had raised the matter that deadlines need to be taken seriously. Sometimes it was because people were lax and there would be consequence management.

On the municipalities that DCOG supported, most municipalities had revenue collection problems but communities also played a part because people were not paying and it had recommended that prepaid systems be established. Eskom was owed R18 billion by Soweto residents. Municipalities were owed over R150 billion due to residents not paying and therefore the request for prepaid meters.

Mr Mashitiso replied that the way the CWP model had been adopted was a nightmare but DCOG was working with Treasury in a process to get a new model as the current model was not workable. Currently on the asset register were teaspoons, jungle gyms and sheep.

Mr Mashitiso noted that as the incumbent official he had inherited the outstanding matter of the 2006/7 irregular expenditure based on previous findings of the AG. Some needed condonation by Treasury, while others needed condonation by SCOPA.

On the interventions in municipalities, Mr Themba Fosi, DDG: Local Government Support and Interventions Management, replied that there was a written report that could be shared with the Committee.

On whether DCOG focussed on urban not rural areas, Mr Themba Fosi explained that the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) programme did not differentiate between rural and urban as it focussed on municipal spaces in metros, secondary cities and small towns.

DCOG could share information on the schedule for the equitable share allocation. The schedule determined when DCOG could disburse funds to municipalities.

On the LED township economy the targets were set for implementation as they were piloting them in municipalities and the results would be used in attempts to stimulate local economies.

Mr George Seitisho, Acting National Programme Manager: Community Work Programme, suggested there was a need to conduct a committee workshop on the CWP as people were confusing CWP with the EPWP and CDW. There were currently 256 000 participants in CWP which was implemented through implementing agents. The programme comprised mainly women and children working two days a week. Monitoring the equipment of the programme had become a nightmare for DCOG.

On how the implementing agents and NPOs were monitored, DCOG auditors and the Auditor General South Africa made visits. Of the current 11 contracted NPOs, two had been suspended through Department interventions because they had not delivered on their service level agreements.

Mr Hadebe requested that the report should be delivered prior to the day of the workshop.

Mr Brink asked how many CDW workshops there were as this answer would possibly draw the integrity of the report into question.

Mr Mpumza said his view was that DCOG should provide a progress report on Back2Basics (B2B).

Mr Seitisho said that a specific formula was used by the CWP to determine jobs. CWP dealt with job opportunities and in some cases two people could share a job. The CWP formula included the fact that employment was of a revolving door nature where employees could leave to get better paying work elsewhere yet still return to the programme. An example of such instances was harvest time where employees left to harvest. This period then generated savings because the employees were not paid while they were gone. These savings were then ploughed back into the programme to generate more jobs. The formula needed a workshop to be explained properly.

Ms Direko said that the CWP had done this for many years and should know to factor in harvest time in its planning and establishment of targets.

Deputy Minister Parks Tau said he shared the concerns of the Committee about the Department's performance and financial performance. He did indicate to the steering committee to revise the strategy. The Department would return to the Committee with a revised strategic plan.

On the AG’s report, he agreed that the AG provide the Department with key points arising from their preliminary findings so that immediate action could be taken. The CWP remained an area of concern and the Department would be spending time looking at the model, the formula and how outputs were measured as well as the accountability of NPOs as implementing agents. This would include discussions with Treasury and the AG. The internal controls and SCM processes also needed to be improved. He was concerned about what the AG’s preliminary report would contain. There had been significant changes since the previous year about the CWP. The 2006/7 irregular expenditure that was still on the books needed to be resolved. The Department was remodelling in line with the State of the Nation Address (SONA), a distinct model of support for local government centred around districts. This applied to all of government not just COGTA.

Mr Hadebe said there had to be consequence management for the late submission of annual financial statements for auditing. The next meeting should include a detailed report by the Department which should reflect what action was taken to remedy the situation.

Committee Business
The Chairperson said a draft committee programme had been circulated to members for their input before being finalised. The court had set aside the Municipal Systems Amendment Act, No 7 of 2011, on the matter of the appointment of municipal managers who belonged to political parties.

The Secretary noted that at the moment the replacement Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament on 6 February 2019 and which lapsed at the end of the Fifth Parliament was not revived yet and therefore the dates around processing this Bill might change.

Mr Hadebe expressed his concern about not passing the amendments within the 24 months the Constitutional Court had provided for the legislature, which was contempt of court.

Deputy Minister Parks Tau explained that the Constitutional Court had refused an extension and  that the Municipal Systems Amendment Act of 2011 had thus been set aside on 9 March 2019 so the provisions of the original Act were now in effect. This had been communicated to municipalities. The court case was not just about the matter of the tagging of the Bill but that there were substantive issues that labour had raised.

The Committee Secretary said the main concern of the Committee was on the regulations of the 2011 Amendment Act. She asked if these were also null and void?

The Chairperson said the Ministry should follow up on these matters for the Committee.

The EFF said it would submit its proposals in writing.

The Chairperson said that stakeholder engagement meetings on the VBS matter must also be scheduled when they visited Gauteng and Limpopo.

The meeting was adjourned.

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