Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa plans to tighten the law authorising the government to intervene in struggling provinces and municipalities and go after anyone frustrating such interventions.

The Intergovernmental Monitoring, Support and Interventions (IMSI) Bill sets out the parameters of all interventions by the national government in provinces.

The bill will also govern interventions by provincial governments in municipalities facing challenges.

In terms of Section 100 of the Constitution, the national government may intervene in provincial administration when a province cannot or does not fulfil an executive obligation in terms of the country’s supreme law.

These interventions include issuing a directive to the provincial executive, describing the extent of the failure to fulfil its obligations and stating any steps required to meet its obligations, and assuming responsibility for the relevant obligation in a province.

Interventions are initiated should it be necessary to maintain essential national standards or meet established minimum standards for the rendering of a service, maintain economic unity, and national security, or prevent a province from taking unreasonable action that is prejudicial to the interests of another province or the country as a whole.

In local government, provinces intervene when a municipality cannot or does not fulfil an executive obligation in terms of the Constitution or legislation.

The provincial executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfilment of that obligation including issuing a directive to the municipal council, describing the extent of the failure to fulfil its obligations, and stating any steps required to meet its obligations.

Provincial governments may also assume responsibility for the relevant obligation in that municipality to the extent necessary to maintain essential national standards or meet established minimum standards for the rendering of service and to prevent a particular council from taking unreasonable action that is prejudicial to another’s interests or the province as a whole.

This is also done to maintain economic unity or dissolve the council and appoint an administrator until a newly elected council has been declared elected if exceptional circumstances warrant such a step.

The IMSI Bill aims to facilitate the monitoring of whether provinces and municipalities fulfil their executive obligations in terms of the Constitution or legislation and provide for mechanisms of support to provinces and municipalities to enable them to fulfil their executive obligations.

It will also regulate the processes established by Section 100 of the Constitution and the implementation of Section 139 of the Constitution.

Once the bill is enacted into law, national and provincial coordinating committees will be established as standing committees to coordinate national and provincial interventions, respectively.

According to the bill, Cogta will jail anyone found guilty of wilfully interfering with, hindering, or obstructing the implementation of an intervention by refusing to hand over information, instructing another person or official to refuse to cooperate or to hand over information or documentation in their possession or under their control to the performance of executive obligations by a province or municipality.

Other offences include preventing any person or official from cooperating with any person implementing an intervention, mobilising any person to disrupt or unlawfully act against the intervention, preventing or hindering an investigation concerning the intervention or the causes thereof, and destroying or concealing any information or document relevant to an intervention or the execution of executive obligations of a province or municipality.

Any official providing or furnishing false or inaccurate information to an intervention, threatening, intimidating, inducing, or influencing any person from working in the province or municipality that is subject to a Section 100 or 139 intervention is guilty of committing a crime.

The bill proposes that offences and penalties for any person, member, provincial or municipal official relating to sections 100 and 139 interventions could lead, upon conviction, to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years or to both.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za