Cape
Town - About 300 sections of different laws are possible blockages to
service delivery at local government level, National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson Mninwa
Mahlangu said on Thursday.
He
said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Richard
Baloyi was tackling the problem.
"He
has already formed a task team looking at all the legislation in
conflict with each other, and which is making delivery difficult."
Mahlangu
was speaking after an NCOP seminar,
organised to bring the different spheres of government together to
tackle the challenges facing municipalities.
SA
Local Government Association (Salga) CEO Xolile George said a prime
example of problematic laws were those dealing with the environment.
He
cited the need for municipalities to wait for an environmental impact
assessment (EIA), before it could use land for a specific purpose,
like housing people.
"There
might be a need to speed up the resettlement of people in an area,
but the EIA laws might be putting in place an elaborate process that
might go beyond a financial year," said George.
The
seminar will culminate in a debate on local government in the NCOP on
Friday morning.
The
NCOP would also monitor the cooperative governance and traditional
affairs department to ensure it followed through on its plan to amend
laws which were slowing down service delivery.
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