By Rachel Mohamed
The Standing Committee on Local Government met this week to review public hearing comments and raise concerns about the Western Cape Monitoring and Support of Municipalities Amendment Bill. The bill aims to detect early signs of dysfunction in municipalities, but critics fear it could allow members of the executive council (MECs) to abuse their power.
Prof (adj) Alex van der Heever of the Wits University School of Governance told VOC News that the provincial government has a responsibility to monitor municipalities and potentially take action based on findings from such oversight.
“The purpose of this bill is to provide information about transparency and the ability to investigate, potentially intrusively, what is going on within the municipality. The only concern is whether there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation,” he said.
Listen to the full interview:
VOC News
Photo: Pixabay
