Pretoria-Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Des Van Rooyen has urged MECs to support the newly re-constituted municipalities as they begin their new term of office.
Minister Van Rooyen held the first MINMEC meeting comprising himself and Members of the Executive Councils (MECs) on Friday.
The first MINMEC meeting follows the recent Local Government Elections that took place last month.
The meeting with the Minister and MECs also received a report on local government transition matters that outlined the progress being made across the country with the formation of councils in municipalities across the country.
The meeting noted some municipalities that had missed the deadline of the 24th August to constitute first council meetings and the actions that provinces were putting in place to ensure that they are indeed constituted.
About 99% of municipalities had held their first meetings and four councils namely Jozini and Nquthu both located in KwaZulu-Natal, Kgatelopele and Gamagara which are in the Northern Cape were not able to meet on time.
“There has since been progress registered by some of these municipalities,” said the Minister.
In addition, there was discussion on the two-tier system of local government and within this context, the roles and responsibilities of district municipalities was discussed.
Progress on service delivery to communities in the district municipalities was also discussed with the meeting agreeing to continue to monitor the role that districts are playing in the delivery of services.
There was agreement that there be an audit around how the two tier system is working so as to inform further reforms.
Gratuity for non-returning councillors
MINMEC also received a report on the matters of gratuity to be paid to non-returning councillors.
The gratuity will be a once off amount, which is three month’s salary to be paid to councillors.
“In paying the gratuity, CoGTA will consider the last salary level of the councillor. The MINMEC acknowledged that even though there are strict compliance requirements relating to the payment of gratuity," said Minister Van Rooyen.-SAnews.gov.za
