State to review decisions on cross-border municipalities (Business Day)

COMMUNITIES in areas where their municipalities were incorporated into other provinces against their will, seem to have won the battle as the government is now reviewing these decisions.

The provincial and local government department told Business Day that the decisions affecting Merafong, Matatiele and Moutse municipalities were being reviewed.

“The process is still in its initial stages and will have to go through cabinet and other relevant structures before it is concluded,” the department’ s acting director-general Elroy Africa said.

These communities have been challenging the decisions on cross-border municipalities for some time. The Matatiele community is against its incorporation into Eastern Cape from KwaZulu-Natal, Merafong residents want the area to be part of Gauteng again (not North West), while the Moutse community is challenging its incorporation from Gauteng to Limpopo .

All these communities say the forced incorporation would not improve service delivery and they challenged the Constitutional Twelfth Amendment Act as they claim not enough consultation took place before the act came into effect.

After violent protests, long court cases and persuasion, the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) national executive committee decided to reverse these decisions.

Jaco van Garderen, Lawyers for Human Rights director, said after Merafong’s application was dismissed by the Constitutional Court, the lawyers started talking directly to the ANC.

“We were very happy to learn that the ANC has decided to review the decision.”

Van Garderen said their talks centred on Merafong, but the government has decided to review all three cases.

It is not clear when the process would be completed, but Gauteng Premier Paul Mashatile told Business Day they expected to complete the Merafong issue before the 2011 local government elections. The process would require the constitution to be amended.