good governance, takes actions when officials are alleged of wrongdoing and does not cover up employees who falsify their qualifications.

Again I should thank you Chairperson, for having finally intervened in the North West. I urge government that when calls are made in the future for other provinces, we must quickly attend to those issues before we face a similar situation like the North West. Hon Chairperson, thank you very much and for allowing me to debate. Sorry to the Chief Whip to disturb his plan on how this House must run. Thankyou.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: You must thank the NCOP. Thank you very much. The hon Dodovu!

Mr T S C DODOVU: Chairperson, thank you very much for the opportunity. In the first place I would like to express our collective and further appreciation to the speakers who debated the report today, both positive and negative aspects of the debate. As a committee we have taken note of those because they can only strengthen us in terms of doing our job and in terms of making sure that we fulfil the assignment that the House has given to us. We really want to thank the speakers for that opportunity to listen to them even if sometimes the criticisms were unfair or unjustifiable and they were unwarranted.

In the main, we would like to thank the national government for taking a proactive step to intervene in the North West when things were very, very bad to ensure that at the end of the day there is stability, the North West government fulfils its executive obligations under the Constitution, like all other provinces. I think this is what is very good.

At the time when national government intervened, it is clear that almost everything was bad in the North West. The financial management systems had collapsed. And since the national government has come in, it has stabilised that important area of financial management. That there is accountability and that there is improvement and the National Treasury has demonstrated that since the intervention things have started shaping up very, very well in the North West province. And on that score we heartily thank the national government for that intervention.

At the time when there was this intervention, it is clear that the audit opinions of all the provincial departments were not good. Wasteful expenditure, fruitless expenditure, unauthorised expenditure as well as irregular expenditure, all of those were skyrocketing and the departments were not complying in terms of what was expected from doingthem.

The report of the Auditor-General, AG, today is showing positive signs of development, it is showing positive signs of delivery, it's showing positive signs of improvement of the audit opinions.

And as we indicated in the report, we want to, once more, register the fact that the national government needs to attend to the issues of human settlements because out of all the departments showing the improvement that was there, human settlements has regressed and this particular area needs to be given the necessary attention. And we are happy that the national government has identified this as a problem that needs urgent attention. On that score we say, all the processes need to be expedited to ensure that housing delivery happens because once you provide housing to the people of the North West, you provide them with water and we also provide them with access to sanitary facilities; and we would like to welcome that particular point.

As we pointed out in our report, we welcome the emergence of stability that we see in different departments. One of the priorities of the national government, under the leadership of Dr Nkosazana Zuma, was to ensure that all the positions are filled at a senior level, as it was indicated.

The director-general, on a substantive basis in the North West, has been appointed. That three Heads of Departments, HODs, in the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and