She discussed the municipalities that stood out. There were three municipalities where a number of cases had emanated from. Those were being dealt with and they were all under consideration.
She discussed the turnaround time. It was crucial to the NPA. Within the Free State, the NPA had developed a priority list amongst the stakeholders. these were the cases that the NPA aimed to enroll in the next three months, then the next six months, and then the next 18 months. The NPA did an analysis of that. This was not only to reduce the turnaround time but also to get those matters to court at the soonest. She responded to the question on the SIU referral of Kopanong. The details of that were on slide 37. That matter was under investigation. It had a 2019 case number.
Deputy Minister Thembisile Nkadimeng, Cooperative Governance, discussed the empowerment of councils to assist with oversight particularly relating to issues of supply chain management. Quite a lot had been done in the new term, which started on 4 November 2021. The Department, along with National Treasury had been able to create municipal planning, budgeting, and reporting reforms. The Department had put up committees that assist in dealing with issues of defining to councils and sending circulars to all councils, the meaning of oversight, and the meaning of a section 52 report. The Department detailed when it had to be served to council, who had a responsibility to receive it, who had a responsibility to make sure that it sat in council and what were the key areas, why must it had to be referred to MPAC, and who qualified to be a member of MPAC. There were about four municipalities that still needed training for their MPACs, across the country. Some municipalities were slow. Some had not appointed their full MPAC committees at the time the Department wanted to commence with their training. The training was done to highlight the municipalities to the new changes relating to the Bill the President signed on 1 November 2021. For example, a mayor was not supposed to see that report before it went to the council. A mayor was also not supposed to serve in MPAC. The training dealt with quite a number of detailed issues. There needed to be a system where the Department would capacitate the recruitment of municipalities, those that were willing to be capacitated. She was careful in the selection of her words. She noted that Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the two previous financial years had a stadium of about R21 million. The AG sat in the municipal planning and reform committee that had been set up with National Treasury. The AG said that with that R21 million it had only found a fence, which was not even part of the contract. It was just an old fence yet R21 million had been paid. This was not a case of capacity. It was a case of people who understood, how to deviate, and what to do when they were deviating and then the records went missing. There needed to be a balance between experience and understanding. The second measure the Department had put in place was a qualified course for all MPACs. It was a full-time course called the municipal finance management programme. It was accredited by the University of Pretoria and Wits University. It was compulsory for all MPAC members and the council had to pay for it for MPAC members to attend and enhance their capacity. It was compulsory for all MMC for Finance to attend and for all mayors to attend and pass the course. Maybe the country would reap the results in the future. It was an 18-month course. It covered all the legislation. The database that had been developed by the Department would be shared with the Committee. It was currently sitting at 1685