Hon members, our intervention in the North West motivated by the pursuit of the ... [no sound] ... developmental agenda. The internal and ... [Inaudible.] ... reasons for our intervention are well known and I think the Chairperson has also reminded us so I won't go into that. The situation which had been festering in the North West is also well documented with labour and civil unrest being the key triggers.

Because these issues had built up over sometime, the intervention cannot be a sprint but rather is a marathon. It requires appropriate pacing and capacitation. So our race is not yet over. Service delivery remains of concern especially at local government level with key areas such as access to

water, sanitation, water treatment, plants, street lighting, some potholes and also lack of maintenance. Although there has been improvements in the audit outcomes, much more still needs to be done to promote transparent governance and accountability.

Hon members, will recall that we placed five departments under direct control of the national Ministers in terms of section 100 (1) (b) of the Constitution. This also included the office of the Premier. Other five departments including Cogta were placed under section 100 (1)(A) meaning that the province still ran those departments and the national only gave directives.

In Cogta, it was unfortunate that we did not have continuity and stability in that department in terms of the leadership. You will recall that we've had three MECs in three years in that department, which oversees municipalities. The continuity would have enabled us to respond better at local government. It also would have enabled continuity and mobilisation of the necessary capacities and capabilities. Nonetheless, we are gradually reducing the combined annual irregular expenditures in the departments. So far we have reduced it by 47% from R4,2 billion to R 2,2 billion. And we must also recallthat

some of them are legacy and they are not new and irregular expenditures. Our target is to bring it as close to zero as possible.

Since our people largely experience service delivery at local level, it is clear that we must assist the provincial government to pay more attention to local government so that our people can experience better service delivery.

Consequently, we have recorded progress with regard to at least stabilising the administrative leadership at the provincial sphere. We are working well with the MEC and the provincial government because it is important and paramount to have the three spheres of government as the Chairperson has been saying, working well together in order to improve service delivery.

Let me also say that we have ensured that the five departments that were put under section 1B do have substantive heads of department, like the Department of Health, agriculture land and rural development, they have new heads of department. The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, DPWI, has had its head of department dismissed after a disciplinary session. Now we are advertising the post. By the time we leavethe

province we want to make sure that there is stability at least at that level of government. We have also filled other posts and at the Premier's office, there is also a new head.

There has been a dismissal of the head of Department of Health including public works. There are also 28 officials who have either been dismissed or sanctioned for inappropriate actions and poor decisions.