Division of Revenue Amendment Bill: Final Mandate & Committee Report

Meeting report

Division of Revenue Amendment Bill: Final Mandate

The Chairperson informed Members that the purpose of the meeting was to consider the final mandate on the Division of Revenue Amendment (DORA) Bill. To her knowledge, there had been no changes to the Bill, and she asked Members to air their views.

Mr A Van der Westhuizen (DA) said the concerns of the Committee regarding the Bill had not been addressed, and he proposed opposing it. Members had to agree they had been put under undue pressure to accept the Bill in terms of timelines. If the proposals of the Committee were rejected, they could have been given enough time to express their views on the matter.

Mr D America (DA) seconded the proposal to oppose the Bill.

Ms W Philander (DA) supported the stance of Mr Van der Westhuizen to oppose the Bill in its entirety.

Mr G Brinkhuis (Al Jama-h) said he had been covered by the response from the Department and the Provincial Treasury. He therefore supported the Bill.

Mr P Marais (FF+) said that in terms of the cooperative governance, it was inexplicable to oppose the Western Cape, as it was a powerful province in respect of its service delivery. The matter had to do with the equitable distribution of funds to provinces, and he complimented and supported Members who opposed the Bill.

Ms N Nkondlo (ANC) said the ANC supported the Bill because there was an allocation to alleviate the burden of the wage bill of the public servants. Funding for youth initiatives had been allocated, and the Western Cape was not the only province immune to the challenges facing the youth, like unemployment. It was up to the legislature to monitor the allocated funds to ensure the allocations went to the intended beneficiaries, including the R80m allocated to the George Municipality for youth initiatives.

Mr C Dugmore (ANC) indicated that the views expressed by Ms Nkondlo represented the views of the ANC.

Adoption of the Committee Report

The Chairperson informed the Committee that all the DA Members expressed a majority view to oppose the Bill in its entirety, and that Members of the Committee had not been given enough time to conduct public hearings on the Bill.

On the other hand, the ANC and Al Jama-ah expressed a minority view to support the Bill.

The Chairperson then read the report for the record.

Ms Philander moved to oppose the Bill.

Mr Van der Westhuizen seconded the motion.

The Committee's report was adopted, with minor technical amendments.

Adoption of Minutes

The Committee adopted the minutes of its meeting on 1 December 2021.

The meeting was adjourned.