Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has sent President Jacob Zuma 70 pages of recommendations for amendments to the “brick wall of bureaucracy, law and regulation” that she says obstructs provincial and municipal service provision.
Two documents, dealing respectively with the provincial and municipal tiers, were submitted to the presidency and the cooperative development ministry after a request from Zuma at an intergovernmental meeting in Pretoria in August last year.
Zille said Zuma had set up a task team to “examine where laws need to be changed to remove over-bureaucratic compliance requirements”.
The proposals are rooted in problems Zille’s administration and DA councils have experienced in the Western Cape. Practical governance had been a lesson for her, she conceded. “It’s easy to talk, but very difficult to apply what you say in practice.”
Zille said red tape was necessary to prevent corruption, but added: “The extent to which measures make it impossible to apply any initiative, or judgment or discretion is frustrating beyond belief.”
The recommendations came from Western Cape departments including health, education, environmental affairs and development planning, as well as the provincial treasury and councils.
Zille cited the Pelican Park housing project in Cape Town, which had suffered serious delays because of the onerous requirements of the National Environmental Management Act.
Recommendations include possible amendments to schedule four and five of the Constitution, which deal with areas where the legislative competences of national and provincial governments overlap.
Zille’s submission argues that there are problems in interpreting the schedules, which are inconsistently applied. The submission states: “There should be absolute clarity on what each functional area entails and [which government department] is responsible for it and to what extent.”
She called for provisions requiring the national director general of health to receive all applications for certificates of need — required before a health facility can be established, or for changes such as new medical technology or extra hospital beds — to be devolved to provinces.
The submission also states: “This function cannot be performed at national level due to the mass of applications that have to be processed from all the provinces.”
Zille called for changes to the Criminal Procedure Act to remedy problems created by the transfer of forensic pathology services from the police to the health department. The submission highlights the need for forensic officers to be able to subpoena and seize medical records, and take samples and substances in postmortem investigations.
One of the main hurdles for municipalities is enforcing bylaws — including those relating to building, planning, health and traffic violations — as magistrate’s courts are not equipped for this, according to the submission.
It recommended introducing special municipal courts, such as those that have been running in Cape Town since 2000, elsewhere.
Smaller municipalities that lack technical skills have difficulty implementing and complying with complex municipal laws and regulations. It was recommended that local government legislation, including the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Local Government Municipal Systems Act, should be simplified.
Other issues affecting municipalities include the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, where permission to subdivide must be granted at national level. This means delays of up to 12 months in the release of farmland for township development, cemetery extensions and other municipal and industrial infrastructure.