On 5 December 2011, the South African Cabinet announced its intervention in the Limpopo Provincial Government according to section 100 (1) (b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This intervention effectively placed five provincial departments, namely the Provincial Treasury, Education, Roads and Transport, Health and Public Works under national executive administration. The intervention required that the Heads of Department (HODs) of the departments under administration surrender their Accounting Officer (AO) operational functions in terms of section 36 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Section 100 (2) (c) of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996, provides for the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to, whilst an intervention continues, review the intervention regularly and make recommendations to the National Executive.