Municipal Demarcation Board & CRL Rights Commission 2020/21 Annual Report; with Deputy Ministers

Meeting report

Opening Remarks

The Chairperson welcomed everyone present, including officials from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), representatives from the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), and said that the meeting was scheduled at the “wrong time” because political parties were busy trying to establish municipalities. The expectation from local government was service delivery and a stable government. The Committee was well aware of what was happening in local government. The Chairperson asked for the agenda to be adopted.

The meeting agenda was adopted.

Ms Thembi Nkadimeng, Deputy Minister: COGTA , said that the meeting was in compliance with Section 195, which required feedback to be given on the progress of the Department and its statutory bodies which were supposed to report back when requested by the Portfolio Committee. She said that small entities were generally able to achieve and manage their objectives as mandated. There were challenges with funding in some of the entities which had affected the achievement of objectives, indicating that the MDB was such entity, where a lack of funding had made it difficult for proper consultations to take place during the demarcation process to the satisfaction of Parliament and the Department.  

Municipal Demarcation Board's 2020/21 annual report

Mr Thabo Manyoni, Chairperson, Municipal Demarcation Board (MBD), said that with the support of the Portfolio Committee and the Department, the MDB had made it and municipalities had already assigned people according to the legislation. When the processes for the annual report started, the MDB had been uncertain of the outcomes of the report, especially since the Minister kept asking its management whether the deadlines would be met so that the IEC could give the go-ahead for elections. Fortunately, the deadlines were met, given the challenging conditions that were experienced.

He said that the MDB had maintained a clean audit outcome, and 100% of the annual performance plan (APP) targets were achieved. Spatial boundary descriptions were finalised for 213 municipalities, as well as 132 finalised reports on the norms and standards of municipal powers and functions. Although government was still rolling out the District Development Model (DDM) programme, the MDB would be assisting on matters relating to the municipal powers and functions of local municipalities that should be assigned to delimited district municipalities.

He said that 4 468 wards had been published for the elections and that the media communication and awareness programme was completed to inform stakeholders on the MDB’s processes because, as an independent body, the MDB would not hide behind neutrality instead of addressing communities directly. Where the Committee required the MDB to respond to urgent matters and provide progress reports, this would be done.

Two years ago, the MDB had written to political parties to create awareness on the Board and its purpose, but the assistance of the Committee was still needed. The MDB was duty bound to work with municipalities, because councilors were public representatives in their areas, but unfortunately municipalities were highly charged politically. There must be collaboration to ensure that the work of the MDB was effective, as well as the oversight that was conducted by the Committee.

Mr Aluwani Ramagadza, Chief Operations Officer, MDB, outlined the constitutional mandate of the MDB, its vision, mission, and performance information.

(See attached document for details)

Ms Tintswalo Baadjie, Chief Financial Officer, MDB, reported on the financial information, and said there was a surplus of R7 million which had been carried over to the next financial year. The key challenges were that the budget allocation of the MDB was reduced because of the Covid relief grant, a lack of regional representation which affected its work, the outstanding finalisation of the Demarcation Amendment Bill, and the high dependence on municipalities and the Department to carry out communication to communities. She provided the proposed interventions for both the Department of COGTA and the MDB, and concluded the presentation.

(See attached document for details)

Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Rights Commission 2020/21 Annual Report

Mr Obed Bapela, Deputy Minister, said that the annual performance presentations had been completely handed over to the boards of the entities so that the Ministry could respond to questions that were asked by the Committee for clarity.

Prof David Mosoma, Chairperson, CRL Rights Commission, said that the Commission had been fortunate to meet with the Portfolio Committee in the past and a number of issues were raised. Dealing with the database was under way, and would be advertised by the end of the year. The delay was with the procurement of the adverts.

The second issue was on the sourcing of human resources to assist the Commission because it had challenges with filling vacant senior positions. A four-pronged strategy was used, where the systems from sister departments and Chapter 9 institutions were outsourced. The second strategy was to have temporary people to fill posts in public education, which allowed the Commission to reach communities and provide education in terms of friendship, respect of culture and religion, as well as humanity.

The third issue was on ensuring that its information communication technology (ICT) system was up to standard. The Commission had decided to move the ICT to the office of the chief executive officer (CEO) to ensure that it accounts for occurrences on social media, and CRL-related issues could be identified and addressed timeously.

Going forward, he highlighted that the CRL had had a number challenges relating to the abuse of the rights of women and children, and there were on-going court cases where church leaders had been sentenced to long terms. Respect for women was a top priority for the CRL, especially women in the rural areas belonging to religious and cultural institutions. A new issue was the vasectomy of men because of particular religious practices.

Covid-19 had affected the work of the Commission, but improvisations had been made to allow the Commission to use hybrid methods to ensure that its work continued.

The visit by the UN Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women took place in 2020, and interactions were held on issues such as polygamy, Ukuthwala, virginity testing and initiation practices. These cultural practices were deemed to be harmful. Two weeks ago, the UN Committee had returned, this time for a mock session where the abuse of the cultural way of life was clarified.

He said that issues of land access by people who wanted to conduct rituals was also still an issue, and highlighted that a clean audit had been achieved and would be maintained by the Commission.       

Mr Edward Mafadza, CEO, CRL Rights Commission, provided the audit outcomes from the past four years and the strategy plan, with impact statements and programmes.

On progress towards the achievement of institutional impacts and outcomes, only one outcome was in progress, which was on the reduction of wasteful, fruitless and irregular expenditure. On the performance of annual targets, 81.8% of the targets were achieved. The performances of targets per programme were outlined. On the financial performance, a total of 90.68% was achieved for the financial expenditure allocation. The reasons for the under-spending were that the operational expenditure of the Commission was impacted by travel restrictions as a result of Covid-19; the saving costs were not implemented during the 2020/2021 financial year; and alternative methods were used to achieve targets.

The 2020/2021 irregular expenditure was outlined as being the result of two cases -- the termination of the internal audit services contract, and the renewal of the hygiene product supply contract. There were five cases of fruitless and wasteful expenditure: penalties and interest by SARS, four cases relating to price inflation in the procurement of promotional materials and the printing of reports.

On the DDM, he provided the proposals on the advice given by the Committee, as well as the human resources related matters. 

 (See attached document for details)

Discussion

Municipal Demarcation Board

Ms H Mkhaliphi (EFF) commended the clean audit being maintained for the third consecutive year as well as the achievement of 100% of the planned targets. She highlighted that it was the first time that the MDB had achieved 100% of its targets since it was established, which was satisfactory. She asked for clarity on the R6.6 million that was under-spent from the previous financial year, and on the allegations against the CEO of the board and that the Chairperson’s authority had been undermined by other board members. The resolution of the internal matters would help the MDB to function efficiently.

She said that concerns had been raised on programme 2 (determination of boundaries and delimitation of wards) by the Committee, and she asked how the challenge of not conducting proper consultations would be resolved. There was also a concern that the MDB always complained about resources being the main challenge, because this meant that its independence was questionable if it had to use municipal offices. She asked whether the allocated budget of around R7 million would allow it to be independent from municipalities in fulfilling its mandate.

She also asked about the plan to address non-compliance that had resulted in irregular expenditure. In the past years, irregular expenditure of R12 000 had been recovered from officials, but there was no plan for recovery of the current irregular expenditure.

The position of the secretariat was vacant because of an expired contract of the incumbent. What lessons were learnt from this incumbent, and what would be done differently to ensure that the responsibilities of the position were well understood? How much had been paid by the MDB to EMS Africa to conduct an investigation into the MDB CEO, and had the expenditure been fruitful and worthwhile? She questioned whether the allegations against the CEO would be further looked into, because they were serious.

Ms E Spies (DA) said that the internal affairs of the MDB needed to be probed further, and that the Committee needs clarity on certain matters. Referring to the cut in the MDB budget, she said there was an upcoming census and that the local government elections had revealed a lot of irregularities and concerns with the demarcations. Did the MDB have the capacity to deal with the matters that would come up from the census? Matters on the ground were much different in terms of demarcations and handing over to the IEC. The board could not be entirely dependent on the public political office bearers to assist with demarcations and the appointment of more Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) officials.  There were a number of issues that the MDB needed to account for, but without the necessary resources, this would become a major task. What plans did the MDB have to address the issues before the next elections? 

Mr G Mpumza (ANC) said that when the state of national disaster was declared, the MDB had revised all of its 2021 targets and begun implementing them. He asked if the targets would still have been 100% achieved if the targets were not revised. The budget should have also been revised if this was the case. He asked where the set budget for public participation had been spent. He noted that the MDB had achieved 100% of its targets for programme 1 (Administration) while the executive manager for corporate services was not present for past years. He asked about the plan in place for the board to ensure that it addressed the issue of employing an executive manager for corporate services. Regarding the last ward delimitations, he asked about the advantages and disadvantages of the possible use of the population figures versus registered voters for ward delimitations.   

CRL Rights Commission

The Chairperson thanked the Commission for the presentation, and applauded it for achieving a clean audit. The narrative on irregular expenditure should be changed, because it was relates to laws that govern how public funds are spent. The narrative on fruitless and wasteful expenditure also needed to be changed, because government would pronounce on what happens in relation to fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Ms D Direko (ANC) said that the Commission always did what was expected from it, and most of the issues raised were clear. On the partially achieved programme targets, targets were either achieved or not, and she asked how the partiality was quantified. She said that in most of the rural areas, there was a challenge of internet connection, and asked whether there was a plan in place to reduce this problem. She asked if there any consequence management had been taken against those who incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure, or if there was an investigative report on the matter if employees of the Commission were involved.

Mr K Ceza (EFF) said that Section 4(b) of the CRL Commission Act mentions issues of tolerance, the promotion and the development of peace, as well as national unity within religious and cultural spaces. Programme 2 of the Commission referred to legal and conflict resolution, and he asked about the extent and number of cases that had been recorded that were related to religious and cultural intolerance, as well as xenophobia. He said that religious groups tended to be uncomfortable being around one another when engagements were held.

Wasteful and fruitless expenditure had increased from R3 000 to R9 025, and he asked about the procurement method used for the promotional material and printing of reports. What was the origin of the four cases related to price inflation, because this was corruption, and who would be held accountable for this? There had been an article about how rural communities were neglected when it came to service delivery and service providers. To what extent had the Commission established access to e-government for the youth in rural communities through participation in the DDM, because these youths did not have access to proper health and education, which resulted in forced migration.

The rights of communities have to be promoted and protected against the challenges of heritage. The Municipal Systems Act, the Municipal Structures Act and many other legislative documents in Parliament were written in English and Afrikaans. He asked how much the Commission had promoted the use of other languages, especially for rural communicates, where the majority of the people studied legislation.

Responses

Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB)

Mr Manyoni referred to the revised targets, and said that it was difficult to determine whether a 100% achievement would have still happened. On the appointment of the executive manager, a report would be forwarded to the Committee. On the undermining of the MDB chairperson, it would be difficult for the chairperson to be undermined, given the roles and function delegated to a chairperson. In some cases, members might disagree with the Chairperson on certain issues. The MDB was still expected to appear before the Committee to discuss internal matters that were directly linked to the board.

An independent committee had been established to look into the allegations against the CEO, and the report had been concluded. The alleged whistleblower was unhappy with the name dropping that had happened, so it was concluded that the allegations did not have a basis. Even though there were issues, the MDB had to ensure that elections ran smoothly, which was not easy. The reality was that the country did not have money, especially when the MDB had to share office spaces with municipalities, which were politically charged environments. So the MDB had been pushing to have provincial offices, but Treasury had indicated that there was no additional funding to undertake the project which was why some members of the board had been assigned to provinces. He said that the irregular expenditure issues were being pursued.

Mr Ramagadza commented on the capacity of the MDB to address upcoming issues, and said it had the capacity and that the information from the census was used extensively and was crucial in determining municipal boundaries. Most of the information from the statistics was already aligned with the MDB reports, so it was aligned to ward boundaries.

On the limited financial resources, he said that the MDB was compiling a provincial coordination system, and the internal staff had been used for its reconfiguration. In the current financial year, all the district municipal management and heads of departments (HODs) had been written to to ensure that there was direct participation from the district inter-governmental relations forum, so that challenges relating to boundaries were addressed. The advantage with this strategy was that local municipalities were automatically part of the forum.

Communication was being extended to public participation to localise communication platforms so that local media could be used, which was within the budget of the MDB. On the revised targets and budget, he said that if the programmes were not communicated enough, then some members of the communities who wanted to participate would be excluded from the process, which was why funds had been reallocated to ensure that the media, television and radio stations, were used extensively. One of the lessons learnt was that after the process was completed, the board needed to communicate the outputs of ward boundaries through newspaper publications, known as the ‘Know your ward’ campaign, which had been running till the elections.

Ms Baadjie responded on the reduction of the budget from the previous financial year, and said that the income was the allocation that had been received, and that additional funds from the previous financial year were no longer considered as income. In 2020, the budget had been R65 million, and in 2022 it was R64 million. The surplus was for the publication of notices, because Treasury could not be approached for additional funding, as this was a once-off cost.

 She said that the budget had remained the same because prior year commitments were funded from the MDB’s budget savings.

On irregular expenditure, she said that there had not been any non-compliance in the past three years. The irregular expenditure came from 2019, and was related to the legal fees and payments made to attorneys in connection with the issue of the executive manager, so as long as the case was on-going, the amount would be reflected.

On the EMS Africa costs, she said that an invoice had not been received from the service provider, but a report on the investigation had been submitted.

She explained that for the year under review, targets were not revised. However, they were revised when Covid started in the 2019/2020 financial year. The staff of the MDB had been used for consultations with communities, as well as for stakeholder engagements, because of a limited budget. If a budget was reduced because of stakeholder engagements, then it applied only when the MDB staff had to go physically to conduct engagements, not when targets were revised.

On the appointment of the executive manager, she said that the HR senior manager had been appointed and had started working, while the executive manager was expected to start working in January 2022.

Mr Ramagadza responded on the advantages and disadvantages of ward delimitations, and said that the matter was an interesting debate, but ward delimitation was based on registered voters which increased and decreased over time. Discussions had been held with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and StatsSA on the matter, and there had been no better option to choose from at a technical level. There might be a need to change legislation and policies to accommodate a resolution on the matter.

CRL Rights Commission

Mr Mafadza said that the 'partial' achievements meant that the targets had started but were not completed to the expectation that was set, so an incomplete target had to be highlighted as a partial achievement.

All the cases of fruitless and wasteful expenditure were investigated by the Commission with the assistance of the CRL internal auditors. Recommendations showed that there were implicated sections in finance who were subject to disciplinary processes, which had begun taking place. He emphasised that all cases were investigated and that a final report would be produced once the disciplinary processes were completed.

On the inflation of prices, he said that this work was done by the procurement staff, and that issues of inflation should be identified during the process of procurement. The issue also involved the quotations by service providers, which had to be transparent. The report from the internal auditors revealed that the inflation matters did not warrant a criminal case, so this had been considered when the recommendations were made. He agreed that there needed to be a turnaround in the narrative of fruitless, irregular and wasteful expenditure, and said that compliance needed to be maintained within the Commission.

On the access for e-government, he said that this was a challenge that the Commission was looking into. It was trying and use the DDM to create close proximity to rural communities. If there were more financial injection, then human resource capacity could be increased. He said that Treasury had been briefed on the restructuring process of the Commission, and that community councils were already being used as vehicles to access communities because there were around 330 community councils nationwide that were linked to the Commission. 

On the interventions by the Commission, Prof. Mosoma said that the Commission was developing programmes on the objectives of the CRL for communities to learn. In Durban, two opposing religious groups had been brought together. Anti-belief systems was an on-going challenge that was being addressed by the Commission.

The price inflations were being handled by the Consumer Commission, because pricing was added to the products that had been bought, and the matter was being addressed.

He said that e-government was highly dependent on the availability of an internet connection which could not be provided by the Commission, which was why community councils were being utilised.

Regarding the promotion and protection of rights, the report on the engagements that were held with various departments had been finalised on the languages that were used to communicate with communities, because the legislation provided that communities must be communicated to in their own languages. The report would be forwarded to the Committee. He said that the 12 official languages must be used to benefit communities.

Mr Cornelius Smuts, CFO, CRL Rights Commission, confirmed that irregular expenditure had not increased from the previous financial year, which was a result of improved internal controls within the Commission. Consequence management was still being implemented, and the disciplinary processes had started.

Follow-up discussion

Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB)

Ms Spies said that the annual report of the MDB was positive, and it was expected that the MDB had dealt with the matters of the information provided by the IEC and StatsSA on ward delimitations efficiently. Voter registration being used in ward delimitations was different on the ground because in some areas voters relocated and did not vote where they were registered, which decreased voter turnouts in those areas. She said that if information, data and statistics were properly reconciled and consolidated with fieldwork, then the situation could have been avoided.

The Chairperson said that the internal problems of the MDB must be addressed separately as suggested, considering the finalised investigation report, and said that the Ministry should provide clarity on the way forward.

Mr Ramagadza appreciated the comments from the Committee and said that they helped the MDB to be aware that there was still a lot of work to be done to ensure that the voters' roll was a true reflection of what was happening on the ground. He admitted that the MDB did rely on the information provided by the IEC for ward delimitations. One of the planned projects for the next financial year was to conduct an analysis on the voting districts by determining the voting boundaries and providing feedback to the IEC to develop remedies where problems were identified. He said that there was always a delay in data between when the national elections happen and when the local government elections happen.

The Chairperson suggested that the issue of regional coordination should be discussed with the Ministry and the Department if there were challenges experienced by the MDB when working with municipalities. Clear recommendations could be provided on how to deal with the matter of regional coordination. The Chairperson highlighted that there might be hotspot areas within the country related to the MDB which might not have been resolved, so strategies could be developed to deal with the issues.

Mr Manyoni thanked the Committee for the concerns that had been raised and the Chairperson’s remarks on the MDB’s work in progress. He said a follow-up would be done on the hotspot areas, and thanked the Committee for its support, as over the years it had been firm on resolving issues. The MDB would do its best not to disappoint the Committee.

Deputy Minister Nkadimeng appreciated the inputs from the MDB as well as the comments and questions posed by the Committee. She said that at the appropriate time, the Ministry would be able to provide feedback to the Committee on the report that had been sent to the Minister. The MDB was improving in terms of performance and achieving set goals. There were still challenges and areas that could be improved, but it was appreciated that the MDB was encouraged to focus on its functions. She assured the Committee that the Department would ensure that the MDB was able to function and carry out its responsibilities so that it was also able to carry-out its responsibilities to the Portfolio Committee. She also appreciated the MDB chairperson for work well done during the difficult period of meeting the election deadline, as well as presenting a sound annual report to the Portfolio Committee. She thanked the rest of the MDB representatives as well.

The Chairperson said that the Committee now had a better understanding of the issues, and dismissed the MDB representatives.

CRL Rights Commission

Mr Ceza said that every entity had internal controls, so the CRL’s internal controls for detecting irregularities were pointless to the Committee. Instead, the most important factor was that people must be held accountable, and he asked whether there was consequence management. If not, why not? He also asked if the Commission had the capacity to implement consequence management on the outcomes of the internal controls. It was concerning that legacy issues of the hegemony of two languages were still being discussed today, which showed that there was a lack of remedial mechanisms in place. The resources available had to be used to intervene on what needed to be done.

Prof Mosoma said that the issue of the hegemony of two languages was problematic, because the majority of poor people could not access the two languages. When languages stopped being the languages of commerce and record, there was no interest in continuing using them. He said that the capacity of bringing a language to discourse was the ability to ensure that African languages were used as languages of record and commerce.

On the issue of tolerance, he said there were efforts to try and bring divided communities back together in terms of race, culture and language to ensure that there was co-existence. Unity and diversity were important in shaping the trajectory of a new South Africa, which was the Commission’s commitment.

Deputy Minister Bapela welcomed the report from the CRL Commission and the comments made by the Committee. On the review of the bi-laws in municipalities, he said that the annual performance reports were being reviewed on the commitments that had been made, and not all 257 municipalities were reviewed in one financial year. Some of the bi-laws were anti-culture, because they had been developed during the colonial era in South Africa, where the culture of Africans was not embraced in cities and towns. Integration would continue until acceptance and tolerance of cultures was achieved amongst all South Africans.

On the matters relating to Ukuthwala, there had been intolerance in suburban areas around the practice. Cultural differences need to be reconciled and embraced, so the CRL may need to review its targets depending on the resources available to look into the issues.

On the DDM, he said there were 44 rural district municipalities, and the Commission could try to focus on a rural perspective of the DDM so that lessons could be learnt.

He confirmed that the Department was in discussions with the CRL on the issue raised by the National House of Traditional Leaders about the structure and establishment of the community councils, which was a good model by the CRL to gain access to communities. There seemed to be a clash between the community councils and traditional leaders on various matters relating to the functions and mandate of each body.

The meeting was adjourned.