Wyndham Hartley
BDFM Online
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Parliamentary Editor
CAPE TOWN - Changes to the provincial setup were not "imminently on the agenda" said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi yesterday.
But he also warned South Africans that a reduction in the number of provinces could still happen.
"South Africans have to understand that what they have today is not necessarily what they will have in the future," he said.
Almost a year ago after piloting a change of provincial boundaries through Parliament, Mufamadi said he was "firmly putting on the table" the possibility of changing the shape of the nation's nine provinces. At the time, he gave the clear indication that he thought some provinces could be scrapped.
Addressing a media briefing on governance and administration yesterday, Mufamadi said: "Provincial boundaries are not fixed for all time. Nothing is immutable, but right now the issue is not imminently on the agenda."
The changes to provincial boundaries a year ago, which were simply to do away with cross-boundary municipalities, caused an uproar in a number of communities that saw themselves leaving Gauteng to become residents of North West. Khutsong residents staged violent street protests against the move which was forced through.
Although there was no violence in KwaZulu Natal, residents of Matatiele also protested against, and have recently won a constitutional challenge to, their town's relocation to Eastern Cape.
A reconfiguration of SA's provinces on the basis of viability could send shock waves through the provincial political elite that has grown up since 1994 and could have major political consequences for the ruling party. A year ago Mufamadi said the nine-province arrangement contained in the interim constitution had unwittingly harmed development.
One issue was that Gauteng, the richest province, had the smallest geographic area and was experiencing a flood of immigration because of perceptions that it offered a better chance in life.
Other provinces such as Northern Cape were huge but with sparse populations and questions about their viability were being raised.
Addressing the same briefing, public service and administration departmenty director-general Ric-hard Levin said poor human resources manage-ment in government departments was distorting the issue of how many posts were vacant in the public service.