It is too early to make pronouncements on the debate around the future of South Africa’s provinces, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) said on Thursday.
”For us in the NCOP, it would be premature to pronounce ourselves on the possible outcome,” NCOP House chairperson Tsietsi Setona told the Johannesburg Press Club. He said finalising the debate rests with the African National Congress’s national executive committee.
NCOP chairperson Mninwa Mahlangu would also not commit himself on the matter, or on the possibility of reducing the number of provinces, other than to say that it is a ”good debate”.
”There’s a debate somewhere; it has not yet reached the NCOP … In my view the provinces have been doing very well in coordinating delivery [of services],” he added.
He said the NCOP has been very successful in taking Parliament to the people, covering eight provinces so far, but it needs to increase its oversight function.
The chairperson of the NCOP select committee on finance, Tutu Ralane, defended the committee’s role, saying it is still ”very pertinent”. He said its role is to ”objectively assess” the ”scramble for resources” seen countrywide. It investigates demands for more money, especially in the Northern Cape where government departments are often ”pleading poverty”.
Mahlangu said that as far as he knows the NCOP, established in 1997, is the only House in the world that combines national, provincial and local spheres of government.
He said as Parliament’s second House, the NCOP has not done enough to shake off negative perceptions, mainly that its sole function is to reject legislation.
”We do amend legislation, but our job is also to look at those interests of the provinces and make sure that in the legislation [Parliament] passes, they are taken into account.”
It also has to ensure that money allocated to provinces is well spent.
Mahlangu said the NCOP receives little media attention as its 54 members only spend about 20% of their time ”politicking” and the remainder concentrating on service delivery.
The council will soon interview its former leaders, including the current ministers of defence and education as well as former director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, as part of a ”critical assessment”. — Sapa