Well, hon Mr Sinclair, I am told you have been in the NCOP for some time. One of the things that is supposed to be known by a member of the NCOP is Chapter 3 of the Constitution. That is co-operative governance. That part does not talk about independence; it is about being interdependent and autonomous. There are two different things there. There is no independence of local government - it is autonomous and interdependent.
In responding to your issue let me say - and you must check the Constitution - we are putting it into law. That legislation is going to be tabled in this House and debated.
We are saying there must be interventions and, to be honest and frank with you, I think when we came up with the local government level, we gave so much to them. We created fiefdoms - 283 of them across the country - that is why we have these problems. We are trying to address that because in South Africa we have one country. Therefore, we can't have this situation where every person who is in local government wants to be a boss who cannot be touched by other spheres of government, because you bring the government as a whole into disrepute.
Therefore, I'm saying we are very clear about this, determined and committed to ensuring that local government is really dealt with in a proper way. Whatever may have been committed in the past, we are trying to address it now. We are going to intervene; there is no doubt in our minds. Thank you, Deputy Chair.
Plans to enhance municipal contribution through local economic development 63. Mr K A Sinclair (Cope) asked the Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
Whether, with regard to the problems that have been identified with the local government, his department has put any further plans in place to enhance municipal contribution to (a) job creation and (b) sustainable livelihoods through local economic development; if not, why not; if so, (i) what economic development plans are in place to ensure sustainable job creation through municipal contribution and (ii) how will this be (aa) monitored and (bb) implemented?