House Chairperson, the department has conducted an assessment of the capacity and capability of the departments of local government at provincial level. We looked at the structural capacity of the organisations, the capability of individuals employed and the systems that are utilised in municipalities. What came out very clearly is that in the provinces, 90% of the budget on average is taken up by the departments of health, education and social development. So you are left with 10% that you can play around with. Of this 10%, 3,5% is utilised for local government. This tells us that there is underresourcing.
The other thing we discovered is that only 2% of employees are above the level of deputy director. What this tells us is that there is incapacity in terms of skills and the knowledge base. We also discovered that there was no monitoring and oversight capability for municipalities in provinces. Therefore, we are involved in a programme of capacitating provincial government departments that are dealing with local government to ensure that there are good systems and that institutional arrangements are good. Departments of local government particularly must be regionalised so that they can undertake their tasks and responsibilities. And, in that respect, also develop the law in terms of sections 139 and 154 of the Constitution in order for people to intervene. These are the measures we are taking to ensure that provinces play their appropriate role in supporting municipalities. Thank you very much, House Chair.