Bloemfontein: Parliament's Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Public Administration is undertaking a series of oversight visits to the Ngwathe Local Municipality in the Free State as part of efforts to ensure service delivery in the area. This initiative follows the invocation of Section 139 of the South African Constitution, which allows for provincial intervention in local government when a municipality fails to meet its obligations.
According to South African Government News Agency, the constitutional section allows a provincial executive to take measures such as issuing directives to municipal councils or dissolving and replacing them with administrators in exceptional circumstances. The intervention in Ngwathe Local Municipality was mandated by the Bloemfontein High Court and confirmed by the Constitutional Court, following findings of constitutional, legal, and administrative failures. These issues include a debt surpassing R1.5 billion, deteriorating infrastructure, and chronic mismanagement.
The committee will engage with various stakeholders, including political parties, business organisations, and civil society groups, to gather opinions on the intervention. Meetings with the Provincial Executive will also evaluate progress since the court-mandated intervention.
In addition to the Free State visit, the committee will meet with KwaZulu-Natal's Office of the Premier and the Provincial Public Service Commission. The focus of these meetings is to assess public service effectiveness across provinces and identify improvement areas. Committee Chairperson Mxolisi Kaunda emphasized the importance of functional provincial administrations in delivering quality services.
Later in the week, the committee will visit the Impendle Local Municipality in KZN following another Section 139 intervention. This was due to failures in financial management, vacancies in senior positions, and ongoing political instability. The committee will again engage with local stakeholders and assess the intervention's progress.
Kaunda highlighted the necessity of engaging directly with communities and organizations affected by these interventions, noting that Parliament has a duty to ensure meaningful public participation in these processes.