/ 14 May 1998

N Province and E Cape teetering

THURSDAY, 6.30PM:

THE Presidential Review Commission on Thursday said in a report that it appears the leadership of the Northen Province and the Eastern Cape have been bogged down by the enormity of the challenges facing their provinces.

The PRC also admitted that the problems may be much more complex than they had appeared at first. Its report questioned the “Ncholo audits” carried out in all nine provinces last year by the department of public service and administration.

The report urges the government to maintain constant vigilance over the two provinces: “We are concerned that in these cases we are dealing with much deeper problems than may have at first appeared to have been the case.”

The commission said it is aware of the difficulties facing the provinces, but was not satisfied that their leaders were facing the problems in a constructive manner.

“We recommend therefore that the national government should not hesitate, in certain dire circumstance, to resume functions delegated to certain provinces or their departments, where those provinces provide irrefutable evidence of inability to carry on those functions,” the commission stated.