Publications
Partners
Cape Town – National Treasury has the provincial government's full support in turning the provincial government's finances around, newly appointed North West Province Premier Tebogo Mokgoro told Parliament's ad hoc committee and select committee on finance on Wednesday.
Officials from the North West provincial government acknowledged that governance issues warranted national executive authority intervention. The North West government has a budget of R39.6bn, with an under-spend of R834m.
Government has since implemented an intervention into the North West provincial government in terms of Section 100 of the Constitution.
Section 100 of the Constitution allows the national executive to intervene in the provincial sphere of government if it has been established that the provincial authority cannot fulfil its Constitutional obligations.
Mokgoro took over as premier of the North West after ANC chair in that province Supra Mahumapelo resigned in May. Mokgoro told Parliament that the North West provincial government would cooperate with national government's Section 100 intervention.
"We warmly welcome the intervention and understand it clearly within the context of the requirements for good governance.
"A solid and robust intergovernmental [relationship] is one of the vehicles for maximising service delivery to the people," said Mokgoro.
Mokgoro said the Section 100 implementation would be better served if there were elaborate and comprehensive legislation to guide the responsibilities of each sphere of government affected.
"What is emerging in terms of good practice is effective collaborative mechanisms in how we handle this. The municipalities are a huge part of the governance challenges in the North West province. One problem area is the Department of Rural Environment and Agricultural Development," Mokgoro said.
Mokgoro admitted to the committee that in the financial year, as at 30 March 2018, North West provincial government departments were meeting just 61% of their targets as outlined in annual performance plans.
