The Inter-Ministerial Task Team appointed to intervene in the North West provincial government says there seems to be a slight improvement in the performance of some provincial departments put under administration.
Ten Departments, including the Office of the Premier, were placed under administration in 2018. This after it was believed that the province was unable to execute its constitutional obligations.
In the video below, Inter-ministerial Task Team on the North West releases its preliminary report:
During the intervention by national government, five departments were put under section 100(1a) while the other five were under section 100(1b) of the constitution. Section 100(1a) means that the province was still in charge, although national government would regularly give directives on issues of concerns. Section 100(1b) dictates that the provincial executive authority was taken away from the departmental heads such as MECs and Heads of Departments. Authority would be vested in the national government through an administrator and the relevant Minister. The intervention is supposed to end this August.
During the visit to the province, Chairperson of the IMTT, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma, met with the provincial executive members and members of the provincial legislature in Rustenburg. She was to brief them about the progress regarding the intervention.
Dlamini-Zuma says there seems to be slight progress in some of the departments.
“There is a lot of progress, especially those that were under B, but a lot of departments still have quite a bit to do. Those which were under A some are doing well but some aren’t doing so well.”
Minister Dlamini-Zuma says their assessment will be taken to cabinet to make a final determination on whether to end the intervention on those that have improved and what should be the next step on those that are not improving.
On the debate by opposition parties on the legitimacy of Premier Job Mokgoro’s administration, Minister Dlamini-Zuma, says although Mokgoro has been stripped of certain powers, he is still the legitimate premier.
“He is the premier. There are specific powers that have not been taken away from him as the premier. So otherwise, why would he be there? But he is not running the administration because the province is under section 100. But there are powers that section 100 does not take away from him.”
In the video below, Job Mokgoro is announced as the new North West premier:
Political parties on the intervention in the North West
Meanwhile, leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the provincial legislature, Winston Rabotapi, has called on national government to end the intervention into the province.
“The government that was put under administration is the fifth administration. We are the sixth administration. Therefore, we cannot be penalised for the mistakes that were committed in the fifth administration. We feel that we need to be given an opportunity to prove ourselves on the sixth administration and if we fail only then that the national government can come and intervene.”
Although the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) concur that there is a slight improvement in some departments, they are calling for the review of the terms and conditions on the memorandum of agreement on the intervention.
EFF Provincial Secretary, Papiki Babuile, says, “The legal opinion which was presented to us as the legislature says the administrators account only to the national executive; not the MEC’s or the province and that needs to be reviewed and they need to be able to account to the province. So, if they account directly to national it means as the legislature we will not be able to hold them accountable and play our oversight role.”
The Inter-Ministerial Task Team says it will soon come back to the province to give feedback on the decision by cabinet on the intervention process.
