Madam Deputy Speaker, I think these oversight visits are very important. They certainly speak to what one of my predecessors, Helen Suzman, said in this House: "Go and see for yourself". The visits to the North West and KwaZulu-Natal provinces were certainly very instructive in this regard. It provided a snapshot of the state of local government in those particular provinces, as well as some of the challenges that are being faced there.
It was also very interesting to note that the challenges being experienced there were hardly unique to the North West and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. In fact, they have a broader application around the rest of South Africa. One of the major initiatives that the report recommends is the support of Municipal Public Accounts Committees, MPACs, in the various municipalities. To this, we can only say "Amen".
However, the problem is with the way these MPACs are currently structured within the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, family. The monitoring and control is focused on quantitative rather than qualitative assessments of how these MPACs are working. It is simply not good enough to say we have 245 MPACs around the country, without doing a proper assessment of whether these MPACs are actually functioning and performing the key tasks that should be done. We therefore recommend, in various other forms, that key performance indicators are put in place to assist these. The same goes for internal audit capacities.
It was also very instructive to note some of the real, serious problems being experienced in these municipalities when we visited there. Here we have to say we agree wholeheartedly with the Auditor-General's frustration at the lack of consequences. Too many of the municipalities have had repeated disclaimers. They have had repeated failures to submit annual financial statements, and yet the same municipal leadership and officials stay at the helm of these municipalities. It is high time that we started having a discussion in this House about consequences for municipalities, municipal officials, and municipal office bearers who continuously fail to perform.
We also note that the eThekwini Municipality spoke to us at length about the ongoing Manase Report investigation, and it is mentioned in this document. We believe it is entirely problematic that this report remains unreleased despite two missed deadlines to release it publicly. It is now starting to have the stench of a cover-up, and we would urge the eThekwini Municipality to release the Manase Report as soon as possible. In conclusion, I would like to thank the chairperson and fellow members of the committee for a very interesting few days, as well as the committee officer, Johnny Ramrock, and others, who provided the administrative and capacitative support. Thank you. [Applause.]