Chairperson, the DA welcomes the Bill. These changes have been long overdue and we feel that it is still not comprehensive enough. The DA will support all measures to hold councillors and officials more accountable and make this sphere of government perform better.
The effort to change the Municipal Systems Act and to allow for clearer differences between officials and political activists, by forcing municipal officials to resign when they become official candidates for national and provincial elections, is welcomed.
Too many officials do political work during office hours or behave as political activists in their work situation. We further caution whether it is constitutional to force officials to resign or rather to be forced to leave. This is a matter that will have to be debated within the committee.
We welcome section 106(4)(a) of the Municipal Systems Act that provides that the Minister may request the MEC to investigate maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice that, in his or her opinion, has occurred or is occurring in a municipality in the province. The MEC must provide the Minister and the Minister of Finance with a report on the investigation, detailing the outcome of the investigation. We need more investigations and discipline. Thank you very much.