Deputy Speaker, the NFP welcomes the Bill tabled here today, as the Bill seeks to provide for seamless administrative matters regarding the number of seats a local municipality must have, the elimination of the concept of district municipal areas, dates set aside for the by-election, and the representation threshold at a district municipality for local municipalities, considering the population size and geographical area.
Whilst the NFP agrees that dealing with a void, or a lacuna, in case of the speaker, the municipal manager or any other official designated by members of the executive council is important, it is indeed worrying that, since 2000, government has not deemed it necessary to legislate on such pertinent matters. For instance, in the year 2000, there were 60 by-elections. In 2006, there were 54 by-elections. In 2011, there were 741 by-elections. In 2016, there were 43 by-elections. The list goes on and on.
In each year of a by-election or election, we have encountered instances where municipalities are paralysed by political power struggles, and it becomes worse where there is the perception that the intervention by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs is partisan or biased. That exacerbates the problem, and municipalities are rendered dysfunctional for a long time. There have been many instances where it takes a long time to inaugurate municipalities officially and, at grassroots level, the citizens of that area become the victims of a lack of service delivery.
Whilst the Bill attempts to respond where there is confusion on issues such as "declared elected" or "date of election" and many others, like the finding against the councillor that broke the code of conduct through fraud and corruption, etc, and was handed a two-year sentence, it is our considered view that in light of the killing of councillors and officials, we need to tighten the legislation. Murdering of councillors, officials and security guards has become a common phenomenon. The NFP feels that, working with the security cluster, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs should attempt to tighten the legislation so that those who commit these heinous crimes of murdering others for their own ulterior motives are brought to book and face the full might of the law. It also takes a long time for officials and councillors who have been charged with wrongdoing to exit the system. It is worse when they are migrated to other lucrative positions, either in municipalities in the same province or other provinces in our country.
In its current form, the Bill has a number of loose valves and, whilst dealing with administrative matters,
it falls short of covering some of the other critical matters that affect municipalities. Some of these matters require intra- or multiparty interventions. In short, they require political solutions. We have noted that, in some instances, problems continue indefinitely, as municipalities and communities feel that intervention by MECs is biased. That must stop.
Having raised its concerns, the NFP supports the Bill. [Time expired.]