Hon Chairperson, to the Minister, I think you would concur with me when I say that giving more money to the municipalities might not be a solution to the problem but it might be aggravating the problem. When we were analysing the audit
reports, there are four depressing concerns that the Auditor General's report keeps on hammering on in the municipalities; wasteful expenditure, unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure.
That is more related in many instances to the lack of capacity and the lack of skills in the municipalities. Recently the School of Public Leadership in the University of Stellenbosch issued a paper that spoke to exactly that to say that there is skills erosion in local government. So, I think that it is important that we recognise that there is lack of human resource capacity in the municipalities.
The question is: Have you been able to look at the possibilities of establishing a skills fund that is specifically focusing on municipal employees so that we do not have a problem of skills in municipalise? Maybe the improvement of the skills there will be better financial management. That is the question in terms of the skills fund that will be focusing on building capacity in local government. Thanks, Chair.