Questions and Replies

Reply:

No, the department has not issued an instruction to any municipalities to award municipal officials danger pay for their efforts during COVID19.

End.

Reply:

No, the Department does not intend to put measures in place in this regard as the salaries of Public Office Bearers including that of Kings/Queens is determined by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers. On 16 August 2023, the Commission issued a proclamation determining salaries for Kings/Queens, Principal Traditional Leaders, Senior Traditional Leaders as well as Headmen and Headwomen.

Based on the latest determination, all Kings/Queens are equally remunerated a salary of R 1 315 429. The department is not aware of any King that is remunerated higher than the other Kings.

End.

Reply:

The DDM implementation update reports produced by the department confirms that the DDM is now fully incorporated into the agendas of the various intergovernmental structures and platforms across the government. These reports also indicate that implementation of various One Plan projects are being implemented by the different government partners and stakeholders, which are further demonstrated in the site visits under taken by the Honourable President of the Republic and members of the Executive during Presidential DDM imbizos. For example the Tsomo river abstraction and water treatment plant in the Chris Hani District that will benefit 40 000 households and was constructed at a cost of R215 million and created 1692 jobs during construction and where locally based SMMEs were used. As well as the “Vlakkeland housing project” in the town of Paarl in the Cape Winelands District which is earmarked for mixed use development consisting of subsidy, GAP and social housing as well as social facilities. To date, R248 million has been spent on the completion of 432 houses and the construction of a further 323 units are underway. More than 180 local workers are employed at this site.

End.

Reply:

a) Firstly, I would like to state that stipends for participants and salaries for Site Management staff have been paid on time for the past three months i.e. participants payment date being 25th of each month and Site Management Staff being the last day of each month. Queries of non-payment relates to bank account changes and these participants are very few.

b) I am aware of the challenge of inadequate Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) for Participants intended to minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses. This challenge is largely as a result of delayed procurement processes by Implementing Agents (IAs) and further exacerbated by the discontinuation of their contract in March 2023.

c) The source of this PPE challenge was an attempt on the part of the department to promote value for money procurement by IAs. The department introduced a requirement that enjoins IAs to submit all intended procurement for approval.

d) The unintended consequence was that this requirement imposed additional strain on an already overstretched Finance unit resulting in delays in the procurement and distribution of PPE.

e) The provision of PPE for Participants is not a nice to have, but a compliance issue that the department must ensure is observed in accordance to the prescripts of the Occupational Health and Safety Act monitored by the Department of Employment and Labour.

f) It is for this reason that Site Audits are currently underway to determine the PPE needs of each Participant with the intention to expedite the procurement process and ensure compliance with the prescripts of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

End.

Reply:

Six out of the eight targets and milestones in the agreed MoA between the department and the Development Bank of Southern Africa as it programme implementation agent in these three pilot sites, were achieved by 30 April 2023, when the MoA was terminated. The one target and milestone not completely achieved, which stood at 85% achieved, relates to the filling of certain identified vacancies within the three DDM technical support hubs due to recruitment delays and the premature termination of the MoA. The other target and milestone not completely achieved, which also stood at 85% achieved, was the convening of scheduled Executive Steering Committee (ESC) and Operations Steering Committee (OSC) meetings on time as planned due to other priority commitments by both parties.

End.

Reply:

a) The intergovernmental One Plans are the implementation tools of the District Development Model, which provides the framework for how service delivery challenges will be responded to by government. One Plans therefore contain budgetary commitments, performance and implementation targets, milestones and timeframes, by all of government that are confirmed and agreed upon at the various intergovernmental structures and platforms that are already in place across the three spheres of government.

b) Intergovernmental commitments made in One Plans are monitored and tracked through the work of the established intergovernmental structures and platforms across the three spheres of government as well as through the DDM Information Management System produced by the Department and individual provinces. These mechanisms are also complimented by the quarterly reports produced by the DDM political champions and the hosting of Presidential DDM imbizos in all provinces and in selected districts, where the Executive engage with citizens on not only service delivery challenges but also progress made in this regard.

End.

Reply:

The participation of Traditional Leaders in municipal council meetings is regulated by section 81 of the Municipal Structures Act, which was amended by the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, 2019 (Act No. 3 of 2019). The amendment came into operation on 1 April 2021. More specifically, Section 81(4) of the Municipal Structures Act, provides that participating traditional leaders may participate in the proceedings of the relevant local, district or metropolitan municipality and may submit motions, make proposals and ask questions. A participating traditional leader may also address the municipal council on any matter directly or indirectly affecting traditional or Khoi-San leadership or the relevant traditional or Khoi-San council or community. More details of the roles of participating leaders in municipal council proceedings are found in section 81(8).

End.

Reply:

1. Some of the proposed changes relate to (i) encouraging amendments to the section 12 Notices to change from Mayoral Executive System to a Collective Executive System to create an environment of “political inclusivity”, (ii) professionalising the administration, (iii) limitation on motions of no confidence through the introduction of a ‘2-year’ cooling-off period to force the focus on the functionality of council and service delivery, (iv) creation and publication of coalition agreements, (v) enabling the party with the highest number of seats to be given first preference to form a coalition with clear timeframes, (vi) enabling the party with the highest number of seats to be given first preference for the appoint of the Mayor (as appointed from the EXCO) and (vii) the introduction of a 1% threshold that will require parties to receive at least 1% of the votes casted to qualify for a seat on the municipal council.

2. Note that the department did not pre-empt the National Dialogue, in fact, the department was in the process of hosting a similar type of engagement but decided to halt its plans since government through the Deputy President’s office planned to host a session, albeit from a much broader perspective.

End.

Reply:

The Department has not been advised of any sports field project where services were procured with no construction taking place in the eDumbe local municipality. A sport field project (Mashekelela Sports Field) was completed in the 2022/2023 FY for a budget of R3 million funded through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.

End.

Reply:

The response below was provided by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI). Accordingly, I have been advised as follows:

a) A total of 29 cases involving Councillors are being investigated by the DPCI as of 05 September 2023. Details on the status of the 29 cases are provided below:

b) A total of twenty-six (26) Councillors have been charged since 2019. Below are the details:

c) Awaiting response from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

d) Same as above.

e)   Same as above.

End

Reply:

1. No, the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) did not undertake any assessment of the cost incurred by local municipalities for electrical and water infrastructure damage as a direct impact of loadshedding. However, the South African Association of Local Government (SALGA) undertook an assessment of all municipalities in March 2023 to quantify municipal expenditure and revenue losses as a result of loadshedding. SALGA presented the preparatory work and survey instrument for this assessment to the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MINMEC meeting of 3 March 2023. According to SALGA, all 257 municipalities in the country were contacted to participate in this assessment. However, only 89 municipalities across the country responded with 75 of them being Water Service Authorities (WSAs) and 79 being licensed municipal distributors. The assessment, or study by SALGA, made several findings including the following:

• The frequency and intensity of cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure during loadshedding is so high that 12% of the surveyed municipalities recorded over 100 incidents per day per loadshedding period.
• The overall cost for fixing damaged and stolen municipal infrastructure and equipment during loadshedding amounts to R1.6 billion (R1 602 300 000) over the 89 municipalities for 2022/23 financial year.
• The cost to fix damaged Waste-Water Treatment Works (WWTW), Water Treatment Works (WTW), and to procure back-up generators and diesel across the 89 municipalities was R1 406 445 056.
• The total loss of revenue due to unserved energy from municipalities was in excess of R21 billion per annum for all municipal licensed distributors.
• Municipalities were incurring R1 107 583 200 per annum on staff overtime and contractors due to repairing electrical infrastructure in addition to the normal cost budgeted for the overtime and service providers.

2. (a) There are several reasons for the failure of municipalities to protect their assets as required by the applicable legislation in this regard which include the following:

• Governance, institutional and financial challenges as they all contribute to service delivery challenges.
• During loadshedding theft and vandalism of infrastructure increases as the loadshedding times are known to everyone including the would-be vandals and thieves.
• Lack of sufficient technical capacity to develop and implement operations and maintenance plans that include protection of these assets.
• Insufficient budget to implement the required measures as well as to ensure additional security during loadshedding periods.
• As a result of loadshedding middle- and high-income households, commercial and industrial customers are leaving the municipal grid and installing embedded generators, own generation resulting in municipalities losing revenues.

(b) DCOG has assisted municipalities in this regard in several ways including the following:

• DCOG led the development of Municipal Support Intervention Plans aimed address governance, institutional, financial and service delivery challenges following the development of the State of Local Government (SoLG) Report in 2021 that identified dysfunctional municipalities.
• DCOG, through the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) has deployed built environment professionals to provide technical support to municipalities for infrastructure development throughout the project life cycle including protecting these assets during load shedding. To-date MISA has deployed 103 built environment professionals countrywide (86 of which are professionally registered with Statutory bodies as engineers and town planners).
• MISA technical support personnel are further supporting municipalities to implement the Energy Efficiency Demand Side Management (EEDSM) measures through funding administered by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DMRE).
• DCOG introduced reforms to the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) that include up to 5% of the allocation being allowed to fund activities related to the development of an Infrastructure Asset Management Plan.
• Through the MIG grant municipalities can implement solar high mast lights which improve security during load shedding with the support of MISA technical support personnel.

End.

Reply:

a) Local Reference Committees (LRCs) are a deliberate design feature of the Community Work Program (CWP). They are primarily intended to provide an Oversight Role in the implementation of CWP at Site level. In this regard, this implies signing off on the development of Site Business Plans and monitoring the implementation thereof. Site Business Plans detail the Useful Work Projects that will be undertaken by the different work groups each led by a Supervisor.

b) LRCs meet once a quarter to receive reports on the implementation of the Site Business Plans from Site Managers. It is these reports that enable the oversight and monitoring of the implementation of the program. Where there are challenges, the LRC is enjoined to provide support to ensure remedies are expeditiously implemented. These reports, together with all relevant Portfolio of Evidence (POE) are submitted through the province to national department as attestation that the program is being implemented.

c) Additionally, the Monitoring and Reporting protocols of CWP enable regular Site Visits as a mechanism of ensuring validation and verification of what has been reported. This is the yardstick my department employs to illustrate that the program is implementable.

d) Indeed, there has been challenges regarding LRC functionality in the Gauteng and North West provinces. This is the function of a persistent instability that emanates from an attempt at unionisation of CWP participants in those specific provinces. In this regard, there seems to be a drive at recruiting Participants in this poverty alleviation program into Unions with a promise for access to employee benefits that are determined through the collective bargaining process. The department is dealing with this phenomenon.

End.

Reply:

The Department is already working with the National Treasury on several local government reforms which include the development or review of municipal regulations, MFMA circulars, grants frameworks etc. which seeks to enhance the capacity in municipalities. There are also established intergovernmental structures i.e. budget forums, MFMA coordinators meetings etc. where the collaborative model is further entrenched.

Sound financial management requires stability within the administration from a governance perspective, therefore, as a response hereto, the Department has rolled out the following programmes to augment what the National Treasury is doing, as part of the collaborative strategy to support municipalities:

• promulgated the municipal staff regulations, which became effective from July 2022. To give effect to the implementation of municipal staff regulations, the Department is in the process of piloting the prototype staff establishment, which deals with review of organogram, which will enable municipalities to have a fit for purpose structure.
• Support to MPACs and other council committees to ensure their functionality;
• The department has also promulgated the Code of Conduct for Councillors Regulations to support the implementation of Schedule 7 in the Municipal Structures Act. This will contribute towards the stability at a council committee but also ensure that there is action in the event where there is instability or unwanted behaviour.
• Development of the Integrated Local Government Capacity Building Strategy which seek to introduce a strategy on how to address the skills deficiencies at municipalities to reduce the reliance on consultants.
• The department is also reviewing its support strategy which includes amongst others, how to better utilize Municipal Systems Improvement Grant (MSIG) to improve internal controls within municipalities and overall governance.
• The Department, through MISA, support municipalities on among others, the placement of civil and electrical engineers to assist with capacity building in the municipal project management unit.
• Data Management (Revenue)- aimed at assisting municipalities to improve accuracy and completeness of billing and address revenue leakages.
• Cost of supply study on water services- aimed at assisting municipalities to determine cost of providing trading services, revenue requirements and tariff design.
• Records management- aimed at assisting municipalities to improve records management, assist with the stabilisation of the administration and promote culture of accountability.

The above, together with support from the National Treasury will go a long way towards assisting municipalities to address the weaknesses identified by the Auditor-General. It is however important that this be looked at within the context of section 154 of the Constitution, meaning that municipalities still ultimately remain responsible and accountable to manage their own affairs. So by implication, the support initiatives is there to support municipalities but their success is highly dependent on the receptiveness thereto by the leadership within the municipality.

End.

Reply:

The land use management function in municipalities is regulated in chapter 5 of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act No. 08 of 2013 (SPLUMA). The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is the custodian of SPLUMA and therefore responsible for supporting the land use function in municipalities.

However, the Department of Cooperative Governance as the coordinator of the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) is implementing two key projects which have an impact on the land use management function in municipalities, namely, the development of Capital Expenditure Frameworks (CEFs) in intermediate city municipalities (ICMs), and the implementation of the Small-Town Regeneration (STR) strategy. The Department has to date supported 9 of the 39 ICMs with the development of CEFs.

The Small Towns Regeneration strategy, which entails the development of precinct plans for the towns, is currently being piloted in Piketberg (Bergrevier Local Municipality), Modimolle (Modimolle-Moookgopong Local Municipality), and Senegal (Setsoto Local Municipality).

End.

Reply:

With the conclusion of the National Dialogue on Coalition Governments hosted by the Office of the Deputy President on 04 and 05 August 2023 at the University of the Western Cape, the Department of Cooperative Governance will now commence with its consultative processes on the proposed draft amendments to the Municipal Structures Act.

We will endeavour to have this in place before the commencement of our next term of local government in 2026.

Some of the aspects to be addressed in the legislation relate to (i) encouraging amendments to the section 12 Notices to change from Mayoral Executive System to a Collective Executive System to create an environment of “political inclusivity”, (ii) professionalising the administration, (iii) limitation on motions of no confidence through the introduction of a ‘2-year’ cooling-off period to force the focus on the functionality of council and service delivery, (iv) creation and publication of coalition agreements, (v) enabling the party with the highest number of seats to be given first preference to form a coalition with clear timeframes and (vi) enabling the party with the highest number of seats to be given first preference for the appoint of the Mayor (as appointed from the EXCO).

I wish to also acknowledge the ongoing discourse on this subject on various platforms, but also the work done by various stakeholders, and we believe that the knowledge generated from these engagements will lay a good foundation to build on towards the regulatory framework to guide coalition arrangements in municipal councils, including whether or not and how the municipal electoral system may need to change to ensure greater stability.

In the meantime, we urge all political parties to prioritise the needs of our people, to put their differences aside, and ensure that we have councils that are stable, functional and delivering services to all our communities.

End.

Reply:

Noting that, in accordance with Section 71 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), municipalities submit Section 71 reports to National Treasury (NT) each month detailing their creditors, and NT assesses those reports. Given the foregoing context, this inquiry must be forwarded to the minister of finance so that National Treasury can react appropriately.

End.

Reply:

Not all of the following specified goals in the Budget Vote in 2022 have been met yet:

• The allocation of R50,6 billion through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) over the MTSF.
• The delivery of basic services, roads, and social infrastructure for poor households in 218 municipalities through the MIG.
• Directing 10% of the MIG at fulfilling the gap as it relates to repairs and maintenance and;
• 5% of the MIG addressing Infrastructure Asset Management Planning.

The medium term expenditure figure is divided as follows:

The first specified goal above is on track as R17 545 049 000 was allocated and disbursed to municipalities in 2022/23 financial year. As the municipal financial year ended at the end of June 2023, the assessment of the rest of the specied goals above, which is the performance of the MIG in 2022/23 year, is currently underway to be finalised at the end of this quarter as required in terms of Section 10 (8) of the Division of Revenue Act (DoRA), 2023.

1. The following are some of the common barriers to meeting the specified goals on the MIG programme in particular, and service delivery in general:

• Challenges with the political leadership and environment, governance, institutional management, financial management. The assessment of the state of local government in 2021 and repeated in 2022 highlighted that all these challenges contribute to poor service delivery and implementation of programmes like the MIG.
• Lack of capacity in municipalities especially professionally registered built environment practitioners to effectively manage infrastructure development remains a challenge.
• Uncoordinated support to municipalities in terms of section 154 of the Constitution
• Consequence management to non-MIG performers lead to communities being deprived of services when the non spent portion of the MIG grant is re-allocated to the spending municipalities.

1. A number of interventions and measures were put in place to deal with the above-mentioned barriers including the following:

• The implementation of the Municipal Support and Intervention Plan (MSIP) that was developed as a response to the State of Local Government Report of 2021. The MSIP provides action plans for all pillars that affect service delivery mentioned above and the implementation thereof, is done by all of government including provincial and national departments.
• The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) continues to deploy technical professionals through the Municipal Infrastructure support Agent (MISA) to support municipalities with infrastructure development throughout the project life cycle. To-date MISA has deployed 103 built environment professionals (86 of which are professionally registered with Statutory bodies as engineers and town planners) across all 9 provinces.
• The implementation of the District Development Model (DDM) is beginning to bear fruit in the coordinated support towards local government. This is evidenced, among other iniatiatives, by the resuscitation of the Green Drop and Blue Drop programmes by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and consequent joint development of improvement plans for dysfunctional municipalities. The Green Drop Report was released in 2022 while the Blue Drop Watch Report was released in June 2023 by DWS. This assists in joint infrastructure grants management like the MIG and those administered by DWS like the Water Services Infrastructure Grant. This joint collaboration aims to ensure that over the MTSF the specified goals are met especially related to Asset Management Planning and repairs and maintenance.
• The creation of the MIG 6B indirect grant has been included in the MIG Framework as a instrument aimed at ensuring that deserving communities are not disadvantaged by non-performing MIG receiving municipalities. This will see DCOG implementing projects on behalf of those perennial non-performing municipalities as a contribution towards specified goals.

End.

Reply:

The department does not have record of the water and electricity losses recorded for each municipality. The monitoring of water losses is done by Department of Water and Sanitation working with Municipalities. The monitoring of electricity losses is done by National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).

End.

Reply:

1. Yes, the list for all damaged infrastructure as received from the respective provinces have been furnished for roads and bridges damaged by floods in (i) KwaZulu-Natal and (ii) Eastern Cape. Below table sumarises the damaged infrastructure:

Table: Summaries for Eastern Cape & KwaZulu-Natal

1. (a) Fixing of damaged roads and bridges is the responsibility of the affected provinces and municipalities as per their respective legislated mandate. However, following the applications by these affected organs state, DCOG allocated an amount of R3.1 billion (R3 060 038 000 for KZN and R113 511 000 for EC) from the disaster grants to augment the resources of the affected organs of state to fix the damaged infrastructure that included roads and bridges in the EC and KZN respectively. (i) A total of 1507 roads and bridges respectively were funded by DCOG to be fixed by the responsible organs of state (4 bridges in the EC and 153 bridges in KZN) (21 roads in the EC and 1 350 roads in KZN). (ii) The fixing of the damaged infrastructure that could not be funded from the disaster grants is the responsibility of the affected organs of state through existing programmes and arrangements as per the Disaster Management Act, 57 of 2002 (Act 57 of 2002) (b) the time frames for fixing infrastructure still not yet fixed are determined by the responsible organs of state inline with their existing arrangements.

End

Reply:

1. The Minister receives reports on appointments of senior managers including Chief Financial Officers (CFO) and Municipal Managers (MMs) on periodic basis in terms of section 54A(3) and section 56(2)(a) of the Municipal Systems Act, (Act No.32 of 2000) as amended in 2022, read together with Regulation 17 of the Local Government: Regulations on Appointment and Conditions of Employment of Senior Managers (Government gazettee No. 37245) ,
2. (i) and (ii) The Municipal Regulations on minimum competency levels as promulgated in Government Gazette No. 29967 and amended by Government Gazette No. 41996 of 2018 in terms of Municipal Finance Management Act, (Act 56 of 2003) is administered by the Minister of Finance.
3. According to information received from provinces, the following are the total number of filled and vacant positions for municipal managers and chief financial officers as at end March 2023:

1. To ensure effective use of consultants, the Minister of Finance promulgated the Local Government: Municipal Cost Containment Regulations and these Regulations introduced a requirement for the development of a consultancy reduction plan. The development of this consultancy reduction plan is now a prerequisite and needs to be approved by the municipal council before any consultant can be appointed, especially in instances where capacity exist within a specific municpality. Compliance with this Regulation is monitored by the National Treasury and hence it is suggested that the specific question relating to consultancy usage is reffered to the Minister of Finance.

End.

Reply:

The department has not identified areas to be allocated for housing across all provinces. The identification of suitable land and the development of that land is an ongoing collaborative effort amongst relevant organs of state, i.e. provincial and local government, Human Settlements and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure as per their respective legislated mandates. The department through the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) together with the Provincial Disaster Management Centres across the country continues to provide support to relevant organs of state in the implementation of sustainable interventions including the identification of suitable land for rebuilding and settlement of communities for building back better, to promote resilience, prevent or minimise the impacts of flooding incidents. The organs of state are further supported in the development of Disaster Management Contingency Plans and implementation of the plans thereof.

End

Reply:

1. In the past three years, the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) implemented sixty (60) infrastructure projects, thirty eight (38) were not completed according to initial schedule. The projects were completed after extension of time for several reasons including the lack of availability of materials that were vastly experienced in year 2020 during the COVID19 lockdown periods. There were four (4) projects, included in the 38 mentioned above, where the contracts of service providers were terminated due to poor performance of service providers and replacement contractors appointed resulting in delays.
2. (i) Section 106 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000, is applied to municipalities. It is therefore not applicable to the national sphere of government.

(ii) The response is as per (b) (i) above.

End.

Reply:

The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) will continue to support Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in accordance with section 154 of the Constitution. This will be done in accordance with the District Development Model (DDM) in collaboration with other sector departments including the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) as DWS is responsible for water regulation. DWS monitors the management of drinking water quality compliance by WSAs and further engages the WSAs where non-compliance is detected. WSAs are required to register for the monitoring programme on the DWS’s Integrated Regulatory Information System (IRIS). Following the release of the Blue Drop Watch Report by DWS on 6 June 2023, DCOG in collaboration with DWS is developing an action plan, to be submitted to Cabinet, that seeks to address the non-compliances in the treatment processes of drinking water and effluent.

Furthermore, DCOG has embarked on a process of identifying stalled water projects, among others, in mainly dysfunctional municipalities that are perennial under spenders of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG). DCOG has consulted with National Treasury and SALGA on the creation of MIG schedule 6B that will see DCOG implement the identified stalled projects in dysfunctional municipalities as a mitigating measure towards water resilience and universal access. The schedule 6B implementation will be done in this financial year.

End.

Reply:

1. (i) National departments: R 92 564 557
2. Provincial departments: R 346 382 610
3. State-owned entities: R 76 313 507

1. The Mangaung Intervention Team has taken the following steps to facilitate payment of municipal accounts from departments and state owed entities:

• Meetings were held with different departments to discuss the payment of municipal debts;
• Letters of demand have been issued to the different departments;
• Services have already been disconnected from provincial government. They were reconnected only after payment of R 50 million as well as commitment to make a payment arrangement for the remaining outstanding amount. Government has been given until 30 June 2023 to provide a formal payment arrangement. Should there be a failure to submit, they will be disconnected again.
• Re-allocations or reconciliation of accounts with credit balances and accounts with debt balances is in progress.

End.

Reply:

(1) The following local municipalities are currently under intervention as provided for in section 139 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996:

(2) The National Treasury is the custodian of Municipal Finances and all information related to the finances and expenditure of municipalities resides with the National Treasury.

End.

Reply:

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs did not provide reply to question 1835 on 15 June 2022. The abovemention question was responded to By Minister of Water and Sanitation. It is recommended that honourable member transfer PQ 2378 to Ministry of Water and Sanitation to provided replies accordingly.

End.

Reply:

Amalgamation of underfunded municipalities will not resolve challenges experienced in the local government. The Department of Cooperative Governance, National Treasury and the South African Local Government Association are in a process of looking at the possibility of revising the current equitable share formula to address the issue of underfunded municipalities.

End.

Reply:

The use of consultants is regulated in the Municipal Cost Containment Regulations issued by the National Treasury.

End.

Reply:

The use of consultants is regulated in the Municipal Cost Containment Regulations issued by the National Treasury.

End.

Reply:

Enclosed find a list (Annexure A) of project with the projects with expenditure reported in 2021/22 and 2022/23. Note the 2022/23 municpal financial year ends at the end of June 2023 and the list provides information as at April 2023.

Futher information and follow-up may be directed to National Treasury as they oversee overall MIG performance and spending.

End.

Reply:

1. Roles are given to traditional leaders in terms of section 25 of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, 2019 (Act No. 3 of 2019). In this regard, a national or provincial department can only give roles to traditional leaders in respect of functional areas of such a department. The building of shelters is not a functional competence of the Department of Traditional Affairs. However, in practice we collaborate with traditional leaders and other role players in addressing the socio-economic needs of communities in areas under the jurisdiction of traditional leaders. We have seen this in practice during natural disasters where traditional leaders have played a pivotal role in, among others, speedily making communal land parcels available for resettlement.

2. As indicated in (1) above, the building of shelters is not the functional competence of the Department of Traditional Affairs. The Department therefore does not have at its disposal the information referred to by the Honourable Member.

End.

Reply:

Municipalities are required to publish all tenders and contracts on their website and also on the municipal notice boards in accordance with section 75 of the  Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). In addition, MFMA circular 83 advocates for publication of procurement information on tender portal, which requires municipalities to pulish all bids, awarded bids, cancelled bids, deviations, variations & extensions of existing contracts on the eTender Publication Portal. This is done as a way to promote a culture of transparancy and to give efffect to section 217 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which advocates for municipalities to procure goods and services in terms of a system which is transparent, fair, competitive, equitable and cost effective.

(b)

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) referrals to municipalities are not done through the Minister, but through the MECs. If the MEC does not take the necessary action, then the SIU will escalate the matter to the Premier in the Province.     

Furthermore, officials from the Department are collaborating with officials from the Presidency and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), who are assessing implementation of recommendations emanating from the SIU investigation reports. Should this broader assessment with the Presidency and the DPME identify matters that require my attention, I will ensure that the necessary steps are taken to ensure accountability.  

The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) in collaboration with the SIU established the Local Government Anti-Corruption Forum (LGACF) which is vital for purposes of fostering collaboration amongst the various stakeholders at local government in order to effectively fight corruption and co-ordinate efforts amongst provinces and law enforcement agencies. On a quarterly basis, the SIU provides progress on municipal investigations through the LGACF.

As such, the Department will continue to collaborate with the SIU and other law enforcement agencies to ensure that recommendations emanating from investigations reports are implemented and there is accountability.

End.

Reply:

The information required by Honourable member is monitored by the National Treasury. It is recommended that the question be directed to Minister of Finance for the National Treasury to provide responses accordingly.

End.

Reply:

The department does not maintain a record of the necessary data required by respectable member. It is advised that the inquiry be forwarded to the Department of Transport since it is in charge of aviation-related operations, including the creation of airport plans that serve as a blueprint for all current and future airport improvements.

End.

Reply:

The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) did not provide any urgent support measures to Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMBMM) as the NMBMM’s Disaster Management Center and Emergency Teams had technical capacity to attend to the floods. MISA remains available to augment and provide support to NMBMM as and when needed, the same way MISA does not low and medium capacity municipalities.

End.

Reply:

No. I have not been informed of the complaints the Honourable Member is referring to. The Department of Traditional Affairs has accordingly referred the matter to the KZN Office of the Premier and we will await their feedback in this regard.

End.

Reply:

Figure 1 below provides details of the municipalities across the country regarding

1. What are the details of each Category (i) A, (ii) B and (iii) C municipality in each province that has functioning firefighting services for structural, mountainous, veld and/or hazmat fires and (b) which of the specified municipalities (i) have their own fleet and (ii) rely on rentals;

(2) what are the details of each Category (a) A, (b) B and (c) C municipality in each province that has no firefighting services?

End

Reply:

The total costs to date incurred by the Department in relation to the national intervention into the administration of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality are R 2, 006 283, 13.

End.

Reply:

Municipalities are at the liberty of choosing their own financial system that they utilise to, amongst other things, bill their customers. In this regard, the Minister has no legal oligation/authority to put measures in place to regulate the functionality of the billing systems of municipalities because each system operates differently. In relation to the billing system being utilised by the City of Matlosana Local Municipality, according to the municipality, it uses Business Connexion (BCX) Solar system to bill residents on a monthly basis in five (5) areas within its jurisdiction to which it distributes electricity, namely; Klerksdorp including its suburbs, Orkney, Stilfontein, Hartbeesfontein and Jouberton.

According to the City of Matlosana Local Municipality, the municipality is not aware of irregularities with the billing system which could have caused exorbitant electricity costs, as it has implemented the tariffs as per the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA)’s 2022/23 tariffs approval letter. The municipality became aware that some of the accounts distributed to residents levied abnormal usage due to load-shedding which interrupted the system whilst the final accounts levies were in process. The affected accounts were since identified and rectified. The municipality has indicated that it has implemented corrective measures which will curb future system interruptions in the form of installing additional inverters which will ensure continuous power supply to the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) and IT servers in the event of load-shedding.

The Department, in its capacity to provide relief to the residents, makes grant transfers to municipalities through the local government equitable share, which should be used to, amongst other things, cover the free basic services component for indigent customers. Each indigent household, through the local government equitable share grant, is entitled to 50 kWh free electricity and 6 Kl of water each month.

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Reply:

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs does not keep the records of vehicle licensing and fees. It is recommended that the honourable member redirect the question to Ministry of Transport who may obtain the required information from Provincial departments of Transports.

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Reply:

The information required by honourable member is administered by the National Treasury.

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Reply:

The recommendations and implementation of 2022 Greendrop Report are led and championed by Department of Water and Sanitation.

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Reply:

a) Section 12 of the Municipal Structures Act provides the legal framework for the establishment of municipalities by MECs responsible for local government in the respective provinces. If there are therefore any changes required to the governance structure of a municipality to address matters of instability, the changes will have to be initiated and effected by the relevant MEC and not the Minister. 

(b) Falls away.

End.

Reply:

Figure 1 below provides details of the municipalities across the country regarding (1) What is the (a) total number of fire stations in each province, (b) current number of (i) bakkies, (ii) trucks and (iii) other specified vehicles at each fire station and (c) respective reaction time for each of the stations to attend to an emergency.

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Reply:

I do not have such a consequence management responsibility to deal with the Administrators, except if the Minister has directly appointed an Administrator, especially in instances of the invocation of Section 139 (7) of the Constitution.

(aa) Ditsobotla Local Municipality in North-West has been placed under Section 139(1)(c) of the Constitution by Provincial EXCO, the municipality was dissolved and re-constituted on the 9 January 2023. Provincial Treasury has currently placed the municipality under section 139(5) in terms of Mandatory Financial Recovery Plan, a Provincial EXCO Representative assumed responsibilities on 1 April 2023, the MEC CoGTA has also seconded an Acting Municipal Manager.

(bb) The Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in the Free State Province has been placed under Section 139 (7) of the Constitution during April 2022 and is led by National Treasury.

(cc) The Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape has been placed under Section 139 (7) of the Constitution on 6 April 2022 and is led by National Treasury.

The honourable member is advised to direct the question to the National Treasury as the lead for Section 139(7) interventions.

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Reply:

For the provision of water, the municipalities collaborate closely with the department of Water and Sanitation.

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Reply:

The criminal component of cable theft and damage is dealt with by the South African Police Service.

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Reply:

1. The Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality Council's 25 January 2023 decision to name Dr. Edward Rankwana as the Municipal Manager has not been shared with the Minister..
2. The Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality has not requested that the Minister waive Dr. Rankwana's retirement age in accordance with regulation 41(2) of the Regulations on appointment and conditions of employment of senior managers.
3. I am unable to decide at this time what course of action should be followed.

End

Reply:

According to the information received from the Province of the Eastern Cape:

1. There is no intention by the Executive Council of the provincial government to place Matatiele LM under administration.
2. There is no intention to place any other municipality in the Eastern Cape under administration – it must be noted that the department and provincial government have a constitutional mandate to provide support to municipalities so that they can deliver services to their communities.

It is acknowledged that there is a plethora of challenges that municipalities are confronted with which have a negative bearing on the delivery of services to communities, such circumstances warrant that provincial government provides support to municipalities.

On the basis of what has been outlined, there is therefore no intention to place municipalities under administration but to provide the necessary support to that will unblock bottlenecks and enhance service delivery.

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Reply:

a) The contracts of the Implementing Agents (IA)were not terminated, they expired as per Service Level Agreement with the department. The department is finalising the contracting of site staff (it should be noted that some of the implementing agents did not terminate the contracts of the site staff upon IA contract expiration and this led to delays in finalising the site staff contracting. Communication of delay in April payments was sent to the participants via sms. The participant payments for April are currently sitting at 99.9% as at 15May 2023. The 0.1% relates to errors in Timesheets which have been referred back to sites for correction. The department has augmented capacity in Payment unit and are already receiving training and this will expedite the payment process.

b) The department has contracted Provincial Managers, District Managers and Site Managers who are supervising the programme. Furthermore, there is provincial and national COGTA capacity (Chief Directors and Directors for each province) who are playing an oversight role. The Local Reference Committees are also in existence to provide support in terms of CWP implementation at ward level.

End.