Durban – Public hearings on the Independent Municipal Demarcation Authority Bill are coming to KwaZulu-Natal next week, Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Chairperson Fikile Xasa said on Wednesday.
This follows the hearings that were conducted in the Free State and Northern Cape provinces where locals got a chance to present their thoughts on the contents of the bill.
The bill is aimed at, among other things, providing for the establishment of the Demarcation Appeals Authority to deal with appeals. The bill provides for more extensive public participation and stakeholder consultation for any demarcation or delimitation of municipal wards.
The bill also seeks to repeal and replace the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act, 1998 (Act No. 27 of 1998), so as to align and update the legislation with the current Demarcation Board practices, and to rename the Municipal Demarcation Board to the Independent Municipal Demarcation Authority.
The bill would also only allow changes to municipal boundaries once every 10 years.
Xasa told The Mercury that while they wanted to reach every part of South Africa, financial constraints meant that they would not be able to visit all towns and cities in the country.
“In some provinces we will go to two centres in which we will conduct public hearings. Because of the vast size of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, we decided to hold the hearings in the three different areas,” he explained.
“The committee plans to visit KZN next week on 21, 22 and 23 July.”
He added that while the actual venues for the public hearings had not been finalised, the hearings would take place at Richards Bay, Port Shepstone and Durban.
The chairperson noted how the hearings had been mistaken for those of the redetermination of municipal boundaries, adding that they were hoping that a representative from the Municipal Demarcation Board will also attend the hearings and explain to the public in order to avoid creating confusion.
The board is expected to conduct its own public hearings in future over the redetermination of municipal boundaries.