Of these questions? All right.
The department has conducted a comprehensive analysis of all municipalities in South Africa. It is something that is unprecedented and has never been done before, even at the time of the programmes that were there before. What we came up with is the state of local government, and if you look at that report it will tell you what is happening in each municipality. Subsequent to that was the Local Government Turnaround Strategy, which was approved by Cabinet in December.
This analysis looks at the root causes of the problems. Amongst the root causes are a low revenue base and the indigence of our people, as they don't have money to pay, as well as the issues of poor economic development and the conditions in municipalities that are not that good.
Having looked at that, what we are doing now is to categorise municipalities, because the categories that are used by National Treasury, and which we and other departments are using, are not the same. We are saying that there is one co-ordinator of local government in South Africa: Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Therefore, we must ensure that everybody toes the line and follows what has to be done in relation to the issue of categorisation of municipalities, so that we can speak the same language moving forward.
From our point of view, there are quite a number of municipalities that are viable, but there are also quite a number that are not viable. In fact, we think that South Africa must discuss this issue, but you can't discuss the issues of municipalities without also discussing the provinces, because it means that you will be discussing governance piecemeal. For instance, do we need district municipalities in South Africa? They are financially redundant. Before, they were reliant on the regional services councils, RSCs, levies but now that the RSC levies are gone, they have become dependent, like provincial governments, on resources that are raised nationally.
We are saying all these issues need to be looked at. In KwaZulu-Natal, they are looking at the matter because they have 61 municipalities. They are looking at proposing that at least 21 of them must be done away with. Other provinces are looking at the issue. Therefore, I am saying the viability issue is something that is a concern to us and that is being looked at regarding these matters. We believe that we must be able to look at these things and ensure that we change them, but we won't do that without engaging the people who are affected. We believe that the NCOP is amongst the most important structures to engage on these questions.
Yes, we are making serious changes in local government. The Local Government Turnaround Strategy is a document that will remain here for years. Changes that are being made are based on that. It reminds me of the document that there was in security in the past, called the National Crime Prevention Strategy. The Hawks, the Scorpions and everything else come from that document. It was more of a framework within which things happened. It is like the Local Government Turnaround Strategy.
One of the things that we are doing is amending the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act. We are also amending the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act. I could not understand why people in rural areas who have never seen any delivery by government, whether it is water, electricity or anything, are charged rates. What are they being charged for? Now we are looking at that, where we are saying that we can't continue doing that because people have not seen any development. Government has not enhanced their properties by developing the area, so on what basis are they being charged?
We are looking at all those things going forward. We are also looking at a situation where the ward committees are not toothless structures without power. We say ward committees must do a lot of things. Amongst others, if you develop an area and you want to build a school, a clinic or a road, you must consult your ward committee. Tell them beforehand, as a developer, what it is that you are going to do. Even after you have finished doing what you were doing, go to them to let them know that you have finished.
We are saying that developers must not be paid retainer funds without tacit approval and support from the ward committees. We are giving power to the people. Government cannot monitor every space where development is happening. That is what we are doing to ensure that we change things. From our point of view, we believe that we are making a lot of changes, and we want to ensure that things happen in South Africa. Thank you very much, Deputy Chair.