Chairperson, during the 2004-05 financial year, the three municipalities concerned did not receive municipal infrastructure grant, Mig, allocations. These funds were actually allocated to their district municipality, the Siyanda District Municipality, to implement on behalf of the municipalities.
Subsequently, the Mier and !Khai-Garib municipalities - I apologise, because it's a Khoisan word and I regret that I may have got the pronunciation wrong, which is my fault really - started to receive Mig allocations directly in the 2005-06 financial year, and the !Kheis Municipality started receiving allocations in the following years, from 2008-09 onwards. From the inception of the Mig until the end of the 2010-11 financial year, the three municipalities received allocations of R16,5 million, R41,5 million and R19,6 million, respectively.
I have a table here, Chairperson, and I am quite happy to give it to the hon member and to actually take her through it. There is also a table that responds to the second question. It's a series of statistics and I would suggest, with your and the members' agreement, that we ask our parliamentary liaison officer, Jazz Mokoena, to ensure that she gets this this afternoon. If she cares to, she can engage further with us, but obviously she might want to put follow-up questions here. Thank you.
Because of those tables, Mr Deputy Minister, I would request that we should perhaps table them and forward them to all members for their information.
Chairperson and Deputy Minister, I would like to put just one question. What we would really like to know is: Has any progress been made in the development of the infrastructure in these municipalities? I hope that the paper that you have in your hand will provide us with some detailed plans as to where and how these municipalities will set up developmental structures. Thank you.
Chairperson, indeed, let me give you two examples in regard to the Mier Municipality. There is the upgrading of the external water supply to Klein and Groot Mier, and there is an allocation of just about R4 million for that. In regard to Rietfontein, there is the construction of 1,83 km of road for R4,5 million. It does actually say that.
Now, I would like to point out that we obviously work with the municipalities to get some of this information. As you know, there are three spheres of government. We have to work with the MECs and we rely on them and the politicians at the municipal level to give us information.
The first port of call of oversight resides with the local legislatures in the provinces, and the provincial governments. The second port of call of oversight, if you like, resides with us at the national level. However, actually the most fundamental point of oversight resides with the people that live there.
Therefore, when we give you this information, we base it substantially on the information we are given by councillors and officials, but what would really help us, besides the assistance of our own MECs working in the provinces, is for parliamentarians living in those areas to tell us when the information we get is not accurate. They need to answer to Parliament and really that's not happening.
We are very keen on this, hon member. We will give you, say, about two or three months for you to go through this. If you live in an area or nearby, you can help us by drawing the attention of the national Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to the fact that the information is not accurate. We rely on people like you. Thank you indeed.
Chairperson, I have a follow-up question relating to two of the municipalities, namely !Kheis and !Khai-Garib. In regard to service delivery, those two municipalities have had quite a serious challenge regarding flood damage in the recent past, since December 2010. Would it be proper for these municipalities to engage with the authorities regarding assistance from Mig funds with recovery and repairing the damage to the infrastructure in these specific municipalities?
Firstly, in respect of disaster management, as you know there is a National Disaster Management Centre based in the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. It brings together several relevant departments. When there are floods or droughts or even snow, as happened recently, we engage with National Treasury about releasing funds and we do it through a collective effort.
Now, clearly, in the first instance, the resources and fund allocations from the National Disaster Management Centre and from the national fiscus must be targeted at the natural disasters that occur. But, clearly too, infrastructure is often severely damaged and the Mig has to be used, in part, to address this where it is appropriate and part of the integrated development plan, IDP, and so on. So, yes, we can draw on the Mig funds, but primarily it is a matter of getting the national fiscus to attend to the tasks involved in dealing with disasters.
We want to repeat that, given the scale of the disasters we've been having over the last three years or more - which is a sign, of course, of the climate challenges beginning to impact on us - we just don't have enough resources. Besides the two municipalities you referred to, there are many other municipalities throughout the country that are challenged in this way, and we simply don't have the resources.
Therefore, we're focusing on preventative measures and we are reviewing the Municipal Disaster Management Bill in order to take into account what we know about the possible impact of the environmental challenges that the whole world is coming to terms with. Thank you.
Particulars regarding alleged corruption in Matjabeng Municipality
75. Mr D V Bloem (Cope) asked the Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
(1) Whether his department has been informed of any allegations of corruption in the Matjhabeng Municipality regarding funds which were spent in the 2009-10 financial year; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether his department has (a) conducted or will conduct any investigations into the matter and/or (b) taken or will take any action with regard to these allegations; if not, why not; if so, (i) what action will be or has been taken to ensure that the alleged involved employees are brought to justice, (ii) what engagement his department had with the provincial head in this regard, (iii) what amount of the municipality's budget was found to be wasteful and fruitless expenditure in the Auditor- General's report of the 2009-10 financial year, (iv) which of the alleged corrupt employees are still employed by the municipality and (v) what action has been taken against such employees?