Cape Town - The provincial department of local government is considering establishing a special court where cases of fraud, corruption and maladministration in municipalities can be tried faster than in the other courts, according to the head of the department, Graham Paulse.
Paulse was answering questions before the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) during its deliberations on the level of governance achieved and financial aspects outlined in the department’s annual report for the 2019/20 financial year.
Paulse said: “As we head towards the local government elections, we have seen an increase of incidents of fraud, corruption and maladministration in appointments and governance areas.
“To address these issues we are working with the National Prosecuting Authority, the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). The SIU has been authorised to do certain investigations around the personal protective equipment procurement,.
“These matters take a long time and in a provincial government discussion yesterday (Wednesday), we talked about whether we should not proceed with a municipal court or a court where these crimes are dealt with because gathering all this information and getting to a point that we can take it to regular court takes a long time. The argument is that we must establish a court that will deal very quickly with these issues.”
Committee member Deidré Baartman (DA) brought up the matter of the troubled Kannaland municipality and its plans to enter into a deal with a private entity for the provision of electricity and water services and infrastructure, and asked: “Why would Kannaland municipality, which is under administration, want to continue with a project that they know they do not have the finances or capacity to implement?”
Paulse said: “The issue boggles the mind given the fact that Kannaland municipality is under administration for exactly the financial deterioration in that municipality.
"Ourselves, provincial treasury and national Treasury have all told them we are not in support of the project given the fact that they are under administration, and their behaviour just provides further reasons why the municipality should not engage in an unsolicited bid of that nature.”
Scopa chairperson Lulama Mvimbi asked the department to provide the committee with a list of all troubled municipalities in the province, and Paulse undertook to do so.
Cape Argus