Interventions since 2009: NCOP releases list

Since July 2009, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) has reviewed and in some cases, either approved or rejected, interventions in six district municipalities, 30 local municipalities, and six provincial departments (one in the Eastern Cape and five in Limpopo), according to Parliament. Most of the interventions were as a result of corruption, financial difficulties and maladministration, which affected the ability of the municipalities or provincial departments to deliver on services to their communities.

Sections 100 and 139 of the Constitution make provision for national and provincial executives to intervene in provincial administration and local government respectively. These provisions also confer oversight authority on the NCOP by requiring it to review and approve or disapprove certain interventions by one sphere of government into another sphere.

Ngaka Modori Molema District Municipality in North West province was the first municipality to receive intervention in 2009 when the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Parliament found the municipality guilty of having a dysfunctional political governance structure, not complying with the legislative provisioning governing the local government sphere, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, corruption, and a break down of service delivery among others. It took the NCOP 15 months to feel satisfied that the municipality could function without assistance, and the intervention was terminated.

The Provincial Department of Education in Eastern Cape was placed under administration in 2011. In that same year, several provincial departments in Limpopo were also placed under administration. At the time, the Minister of Finance had informed the NCOP that the decision to apply a section 100(1)(b) intervention in Limpopo was based largely on the fact that the province did not have the cash to meet its financial obligations, particularly the payment of various civil servants, including doctors, teachers and nurses. The intervention was directed towards the Provincial Treasury, the provincial departments of Education, Health, Roads and Transport and Public Works. The province had a large accumulated unauthorised expenditure, which grew from R1.5 billion in 2009 to R2.7 billion in 2011. The practice of not paying invoices on time was widespread and there were accruals of R500 million in unpaid invoices by March 2011. These interventions are still active and have not been terminated.

The most recent municipality to require intervention was the Madibeng Local Municipality in the North West province. Its Provincial Executive Council (PEC) intervened on 5 February this year and put the municipality under administration after protests erupted in the area when communities complained that the municipality failed to meet their needs. The aim is to assist the municipality so that they are an effective, responsive and accountable entity that can meet the communities’ needs.

Ten interventions took place in 2009; followed by ten more in 2010, six provincial departments received intervention in 2011, 2 municipalities in 2012, 13 in 2013, and one in 2014 so far. Most of the interventions have taken place in KwaZulu-Natal (11) and none in the Northern Cape.

The role of the NCOP is vital during this process and can only be enhanced if government upholds its commitment to speed up the process of developing legislation to deal with interventions. During a 2012 NCOP Local Government Week gathering it was revealed that “a number of interventions are handled in a haphazard manner, thus risking the development of adverse relations between the spheres” “Envisaged legislation should help facilitate co-operation among spheres during the Intervention”.