Chair, we want to agree with the hon Mokgobi that the name of the game is -consult and engage|. That is why, three weeks ago, we engaged with 167 municipalities. These are the municipalities which, according to the Auditor-General, are fluctuating in their performance. They are what we can refer to as -a zone needing attention|. We are engaging with them. We cannot generalise and say there are municipalities that are bankrupt. No, we talk to these municipalities and understand exactly what causes their state of performance. When we present the report, we will present it to the NCOP. The topic will be the state of local government and we will engage on it. Our findings will be made very clear. We engaged our metros last week, on Friday. We were engaging municipalities one by one, plus as a collective of structures of government in our areas. So, we fully agree. We initiated the idea that we needed to develop a financial performance quality enhancement programme. That is part of the intervention that has to respond to the questions that we are dealing with around financial management.
Councillor Matlou, the executive mayor of Mopani District, is very right when he says that when we deal with issues, we have to make it a point that co-operative governance must be seen to be in action at the national level.
I agree, hon Mokgobi, that those who intervene must demonstrate a state of readiness. It should not be a question of the weak intervening to correct the weak. You have to demonstrate your reason for intervening. You don't just drop interventions into pockets as you go around, looking for municipalities. You actually have to understand what you are doing. That is why, when we went to Madibeng Local Municipality, we said that you can't just put a municipality under section 139. First you have to implement your first intervention. You cannot just come with a second one. You just can't. We then said it's not only a case of, -Yes, we have an answer.| Sometimes it is -no|. We are putting our -no| clearly, because our goal is to build relationships. We believe that building relationships is the anchor position of co-operative governance. Regarding putting the amendment into practice, it is true that we are finalising this. There is just one hurdle that we need to jump in terms of the regulations to implement or give effect to the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act. That hurdle is that one stakeholder took us to court. We are finalising that issue, so that we can give effect to the implementation of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act. It is a piece of legislation that talks to the professionalisation and strengthening of local government systems. We believe that when we arrive there, we will deal with those issues.
The report that we will present on the state of government will be volume 11. It will focus on the interventions that we want to make in order to improve the system. The whole issue of how we manage coalition government is a serious challenge. If you go to areas like Swellendam, you will see the reality that the minority governs. We have a municipality there that has nine members. Four members are from the ANC, four from the DA and one from the ACDP. The deciding factor is that one municipality. So, that becomes a situation of how best to deal with those issues. We need to look at how we deal with management.
In terms of differentiation, we believe that there is nothing like a one- size-fits-all dispensation. When it comes to the question of financial planning and supporting municipalities, you need to come with support that is equal to the particular municipality. That is the differentiation we are talking about.
We fully agree to participate in the summit on demarcation. We will take advantage of that summit and give a report. We are concluding a report by the ministerial task team that looked into questions of demarcation and their impact on long-term planning and other related questions. We cannot paint all municipalities with the same brush.
Thank you, hon Gunda, for your support, but even as you support us, we need to correct you. If you support us and we don't correct you when we believe you are wrong, it means the support is dangerous and then you may as well keep it! There is no such thing as 60% of municipalities being bankrupt. We need to talk about these issues as they really are. It is not possible to do a round-up of all the issues and respond to everything the hon member raised in five minutes. We will further engage with this as we deal with matters of local government. However, I would like to say thank you very much for his support on the question of the Khoi-San people. We are definitely dealing with this question. On the issue of the Bill, we would have tabled the Bill by now had it not been for the issue of the reopening of the lodgment date, which suggested that we needed to take one or two steps backwards. We are dealing with that in order to finalise those issues. The division among the Khoi-San people was also an issue. When you talk about the National Khoi-San Council, some identify with it but others don't. But you cannot have a divided approach. That is why we are talking to them and have told them to facilitate the process so that we can raise all the issues with one voice. When we provide solutions, it must not be a solution that will suit one group only, because the other group will think that we are dispensing poison. Thank you very much, Deputy Chairperson. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.