Thank you, Chairperson. Hon Minister, in 2017, the Financial and Fiscal Commission's, FFC,
submission to the Division of Revenue Bill published results of a research that they did with regard to amalgamation of municipalities. The research that they published was very clear. What you've just said why this amalgamation happened to actually save the municipality is not the case. And they based it on case studies of what was done previously. In all those cases all the towns affected were worse off. So is it not time, Minister, to stop the amalgamations and focus on smaller effective units of service delivery? Is it not time for a new approach as this one has clearly failed? I thank you.
The MINISTER OF CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL
AFFAIRS: Thank you. What we have decided as the department is to do a proper study of why they are failing, and where there is success then we see why it is succeeding. As a department we are not going to ask for more amalgamations until we understand why they are not working properly as envisaged. So we are not going to be asking for more amalgamations because when we research we may find that maybe there are certain ingredients that are needed for it to succeed. But for now we are not
calling for more amalgamations until we understand what is going on. Thank you.