The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) welcomes the formation of an Ad-Hoc Committee on the ongoing national government intervention into the North West Provincial Government. This follows months of pressure from the DA, with the ANC finally conceding to our call for this critical oversight body.
Following the placement of the North West province under a section 100 administration by the national government in May 2018, the NCOP of the 5th Parliament formed the Ad-Hoc Committee to measure the feasibility of the intervention and the progress made by the Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT), led by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) in conjunction with the Provincial Government.
However, since the start of the 6th Parliament in May last year, the Ad-Hoc Committee has never been reconstituted, leaving the intervention with absolutely no legislative oversight.
DA Leader in the NCOP, Cathlene Labuschagne, had raised the absence of the committee several times with the Chief Whip and Whippery of the NCOP, even addressing the matter at the start of last Thursday’s Ministerial Briefing by the IMTT, led by CoGTA Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, before the NCOP.
Following the Ministerial Briefing, it became categorically evident the Ad-hoc Committee was urgently needed.
Since the appointment of the administrator for the Provincial Department of Education, a total of R225 million has been returned to national government, having a profoundly negative effect on the department’s ability to fulfil their constitutional obligation. This is a further regression under the Administrator’s watch, with the department losing R125 million in the financial year before the intervention began.
Further to this, under the watch of the Administrator for the Department of Health, shortages of medical supplies escalated, unpaid invoices accrued to R1.1 billion, and poor services by health facilities have not been adequately addressed. It was also revealed earlier this year, that a total of R900 million in irregular security tenders were awarded by the Department, while the R130 million Sekhing Community Health Centre which was first constructed in 2012, remains closed as of last month.
The DA has already called for the Administrators for both the Departments of Health and Education to be dismissed.
Since the intervention began, several municipalities in the province have further regressed, including the Mamusa Local Municipality, which had to be dissolved in October 2019.
It is also disappointing that since her appointment as CoGTA Minister, Dlamini-Zuma has only been in the province once, in March of this year, but had to cut her visit short, to deal with the pending Covid-19 lockdown.
The section 100 intervention has not been successful, and has left the province in a worse state than before. The DA will hold the IMTT and Department Administrators to account for their failures in turning the province around, and will ensure the NCOP’s Ad-hoc Committee fulfils its oversight role.
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