The oversight visit undertaken by the Portfolio Committee on Public Works highlighted a number of issues in the Northern Cape, especially at municipal level. As noted above the province is the largest of all the nine provinces and comprises 29 per cent of the total landmass of the country. It is the least populated province, with a total population of 1.1 million people. The province has 32 municipalities which consists of district and local municipalities. The oversight visit highlighted that a number of local municipalities were in a poor state and had large numbers of poor and unemployed people. The municipalities' large numbers of indigent families placed additional strain on their resources.