As the hon member will know, this is a matter that Cogta has been preoccupied with. We agree that the personnel costs in municipalities in general are far too high. However, my understanding is that over the past few years they have come down, although they haven't come down to what I think the National Treasury standard is, namely 30% of the budget of a municipality. We are concerned about ensuring that that happens, that the money is used for service delivery and development, rather than for personnel expenses. In fact, this Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act that has just been passed by this House is partly designed to ensure this.
On its own, obviously it wouldn't do it, but this is part of the process that we have set out for the committee that Mr Smith serves on and which we are seeking to achieve over the next two to three years. So, yes that is our goal. It is not as if no improvement has occurred and it is certainly true that we have room for more improvement.
Again it comes to this, that local government, in terms of the Constitution, is a sphere of government, and, as much as it's part of an integrated co-operative governance system, we all have to agree that we might have to look at the Constitution to see how we can ensure that the national sphere can more proactively intervene in municipalities without, of course, eroding their powers.