Chairperson, section 106(4) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act indicates that the Minister may request the MEC to conduct an investigation on fraud, corruption, maladministration or any other serious malpractice which, in the opinion of the Minister, occurred or is occurring in a municipality. The MEC must table the outcome of the investigation in the provincial legislature within 90 days from the date the Minister requested the investigation, and must simultaneously submit a copy of the report to the Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, the Minister of Finance and the NCOP. The above section does not give authority to the Minister to instruct the MEC to table the reports. However, once the investigation has been conducted, either at the instance of the MEC or the Minister, the MEC has an obligation to table the outcome thereof within 90 days from the date the Minister requested the investigation.
Therefore, the Minister does not need to instruct the MEC, since a legal obligation already exists. As you, in this House, know better than anybody else, in terms of section 41(1)(g) each sphere of government must obviously not exercise its power and function in a manner that encroaches on the geographical, functional or institutional integrity of government in another sphere. Therefore, it is questionable whether the Minister can do what the hon member suggests. However, nothing stops us from engaging informally with the MEC concerned, and that is something we would be prepared to do.
In reply to subsection 2, the section does not give the Minister the power to conduct an investigation at his or her own instance. However, the MEC has this obligation that we spoke of, and this is something that we need to engage on with the MEC. Thank you. Mrs E C van LINGEN: Hon Chairperson, this House is where the three spheres of government get together, and one of the issues that you constantly raise for us is making the various levels of government communicate with one another. I would like to call on the Minister to understand that when we bring questions like this to the Ministry, it is because we are not getting any response at local level or at national level. That is why we are coming to the Minister.
Now, he quotes section 41(1)(g) that says he may not ask the MEC to do so, but the MEC is under the obligation in terms of section 106(4) to produce the documents within 90 days. How are we going to resolve this, because this is now in a stalemate situation?