Godongwana will not propose scrapping of provinces, citing constitutional constraints

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has rejected the idea of submitting a proposal to the Cabinet that would pave the way for the abolition of some provinces.

Godongwana said the decision is rooted in constitutional obligations that define the powers and functions of the three spheres of government.

He indicated that the abolition of provinces would necessitate a constitutional amendment, which was a process that falls under Parliament.

The minister was responding to EFF MP Omphile Maotwe, who enquired in parliamentary questions whether the minister will consider proposing to the Cabinet to do away with provinces in order to strengthen local government as part of cost-cutting measures.

Maotwe also asked Godongwana what would be his reason for not scrapping provinces when the abolition of provinces could be the only viable way to enhance the capacity of local government.

In his written response, Godongwana said Section 40(1) of the Constitution establishes three distinct, interdependent and interrelated spheres of government - national, provincial, and local.

He said each sphere was assigned specific powers and functions, with an obligation to cooperate in the execution of concurrent functions.

Godongwana stated that the Constitution further stipulated that all spheres of government and their respective organs of state should not assume any power or function except those conferred on them by the Constitution.

The supreme law of the country, he added, further provided that the spheres of government should exercise their powers and perform their functions in a way that did not infringe upon the geographical, functional, or institutional integrity of others.

“Given this framework, the Minister of Finance will not consider a proposal to abolish the provincial sphere, as the powers and functions of provinces are constitutionally assigned.

“The dissolution of provinces would necessitate an amendment to the Constitution, a process that falls within the legislative authority of Parliament,” Godongwana said.

His remarks come amid a discussion in the National Council of Province’s select committee on appropriations when the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) made a presentation on the Division of Revenue Bill and Appropriations Bill on Wednesday.

Responding to questions on effectiveness of different spheres of government regarding placing a lot of burden on the local government in terms of service delivery, PBO director Dumisani Jantjies said the NCOP was a very important House to deal with governance structures in the country.

Jantjies said South Africa has provinces with many municipalities, but also a fourth layer in the form of entities.

“Even within the spheres themselves, there are other layers of governance systems. It's working to a certain extent, but not entirely because had that been very effective, we would not have so much issues around service delivery in particular.”

He said there was a need to have a long-term thinking around the need to restructure the spheres in a way to make it more effective because some of the layers of inefficiencies lie between them.

Jantjies made an example of the local government sphere where it has metros and district municipalities.

“You've got so much layers there, that itself, it creates inefficiencies. And I said this because there has to be a discussion by this House, NCOP, whether you need to really reduce inefficiencies by making some of these structures, maybe having lesser municipalities or lesser provinces to show efficiencies,” he said.

Jantjies further said few countries have as many layers of governance as South Africa. 

“I feel the NCOP has a very good role to play in trying to say, can we review the structure to ensure that we can improve on service delivery, and maybe provide analysis (on whether) it can be improved or not,” he said.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za