Parliament, Friday, 12 July 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) today adopted its report on the 2024/25 annual performance and strategic plans and budgets of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA).
The committee has resolved to convene follow-up meetings with the department and MISA to receive detailed information on the state of distressed and dysfunctional municipalities, interventions by national and provincial executives on distressed and dysfunctional municipalities and the financial viability of municipalities, including those that have been amalgamated.
Other issues the committee wants answers to are updates on service delivery-related litigation by local civic groupings, the role of the Community Work Programme, the state of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, and municipal debt relating to bulk water and electricity services, as well as the state of municipal non-revenue water losses.
The committee has requested an update report on the progress in spatial integration to reverse the legacy of apartheid spatial planning. The committee noted the lingering concerns of traditional leaders and plans to receive further information on the Spatial and Land Use Management Act (2013). The committee further expressed concerns regarding the loss of lives associated with male customary initiation and plans to receive detailed update reports on the National Initiation Oversight Committee and provincial initiation coordinating committees and interventions to prevent loss of lives and ensure that the custom is practiced safely.
Furthermore, the committee wants more information on the status of traditional kingship and queenship leadership disputes across the country, including court cases won and lost as well as all related matters requiring the department’s attention. The committee will also receive an update from the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on the outcome of the promised separate engagement on matters raised around the plight of Khoisan communities.
The committee is scheduled to debate the budget of the department and its entities next week. The 2024/25 budget allocation for the Department of Cooperative Governance has a baseline reduction of R1.3 billion and amounts to R125.1 billion, while MISA has received a budget allocation of R406.6 million. The Department of Traditional Affairs has been allocated a budget of R187.2 million for the 2024/25 financial year.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, DR. ZWELI MKHIZE.
For media enquiries, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Ms Faith Ndenze
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8062
Cell: 081 377 0686
Email: fndenze@parliament.gov.za
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