On the basis of more than sixty amendments[/B], submitted by the parties, the reform of local self-government will be submitted to the plenary session of the House of Representatives on Thursday.
After years of debate in Parliament, the three bills relating to local government reform, namely the Municipalities Act 2020, the Communities (Amendment) Act 2020 and the Provincial Colleges Act 2015, are headed for a vote.
At the same time, 60 amendments[/B] tabled by political parties to these bills will be put to a vote in the House. Many of them concern the composition of the new municipalities and clusters after the mergers, with the landscape remaining fluid until the last minute.
The purpose of the bills is to revise the current legislative framework governing local government, with the ultimate aim of improving the regulatory, supervisory and coordinating framework of the local governance system.
The purpose of the Municipalities Law of 2020 is, among other things, to modernise the current legislative framework so that municipalities gain administrative and financial autonomy to become financially and operationally viable as local authorities.
Similarly, the Communities Act 2020 aims to amend the Communities Act to modernise certain provisions of the Act and to introduce arrangements for the provision of shared services by certain communities through the establishment and operation of local service delivery clusters, such as, inter alia, the collection of household waste, the provision of health and sanitation services and the regulation of traffic.
The purpose of the Provincial Clusters Act 2015, is to legislate for the establishment and operation of provincial clusters, that is, a provincial self-governing body in each province, with responsibilities exercised at the provincial level relating to water supply, operation of sewerage systems and solid waste management. The bill originally provided for planning and building permits to be issued by the provincial self-government bodies, but during its discussion the relevant provisions were deleted, so that these powers would be exercised by the local authorities instead of by these bodies. At the same time, the third bill was further amended so that the councils of the provincial self-government bodies would be constituted by indirect election to be held among the already elected municipal and community councils.
Source: KYPE
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