Parliament, Tuesday, 1 September 2020 – The Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water and Sanitation and Human Settlements has resolved to postpone a meeting with the North West Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs on progress reports on Section 139 (1) (b) intervention in the province.

“The meeting was important to assess the progress since the implementation of the intervention and to brief the committee on any challenges in returning the 13 municipalities under administration into fully functional municipalities. It is in this context that the committee is disappointed by the actions of the provincial government and some municipalities,” said Mr China Dodovu, the Chairperson of the committee.

Firstly, the provincial government only sent its lengthy presentation an hour before the start of the meeting which denied Members of Parliament the opportunity to interact with the report prior to the meeting. “This would have made engagement shallow and at the detriment of both the committee, the intervention team and the municipalities that are under administration,” Mr Dodovu emphasised.

Secondly, the provincial executive had to make available a forensic report into the R134 million that was “erroneously” transferred into the account of Bojanala District Municipality and the consequence management measures taken following the conclusion of the investigation. The forensic report was not made available to the committee.

Thirdly, most of the leadership of the affected municipalities were not present for the meeting, something which would have impacted the quality of interactions.

“Due to the above reasons we saw it prudent to postpone the meeting to a later date. But the committee was unanimous in its condemnation of the attitude towards the meeting by the provincial government. This matter is very important and requires full cooperation from all stakeholders if we are to succeed in turning around the municipalities,” Mr Dodovu emphasised.

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, WATER AND SANITATION AND HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, MR CHINA DODOVU.

For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Malatswa Molepo (Mr)
Parliamentary Communication Services
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