BRIEFING NOTE ON THE REDETERMINATION OF THE BOUNDARIES OF CROSS BOUNDARY MUNICIPALITIES BILL.

SUMMARY

Section 2 of the Local Government: Cross-boundary Municipalities Act, 2000 ( Act No. 29 of 2000 ) ( "the Act"), authorizes the re-determination of the boundaries of cross-boundary municipalities –

  1. with the concurrence of the legislatures of the provinces involved; and
  2. if the re-determination is authorized by national legislation.

The Bill authorizes the redetermination of the boundaries of certain cross-boundary municipalities in accordance with section 2(b) of the Act. Irrespective of what decision is taken regarding the future of cross-boundary municipalities, these authorizations must be attended to in view of the proposed municipal boundary redeterminations that have been taken into account for purposes of the ward delimitation process in preparation for the next local government elections.

Public Participation Process.

The technical changes reflected in the bill were effected pursuant to the Local Government Municipal Demarcation Act, 1998 ( ‘Demarcation Act’ ) Section 21 of the Demarcation Act requires the Board to publish any determination or redetermination of a municipal boundary in the relevant provincial gazette.

Subsection (4) allows any person aggrieved by a determination or redetermination of a municipal boundary to submit objections to the Board. At which point the Board considers the objections and either confirms, vary or withdraw its determinations.

Section 26 further requires that if any determination is made in terms of Section 21 it must publish a notice in a newspaper circulating in the area concerned stating the Board’s intention to the consider the matter and inviting written representations and views from the public within a specified period which may not be shorter than 21 days. Subsection (2) further requires that as the Board publishes the notice, it must convey by Radio or other appropriate means of communication the contents of the notice whilst also engaging with the MEC and other interested parties.

All of these processes were followed in the processing of the Bill in so far as the public interaction process is involved and the proposed boundary changes has thus taken account of all these factors. The provincial legislatures have further given their concurrences for the proposed changes in their areas as required in terms of the Cross Boundary Municipalities Act, 2000.

Recommendation

It is recommended that this brief be noted as requested in the committee.