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Scopa postpones meeting with EC Cogta over troubled municipalities

Andisiwe Makinana Political correspondent
The Scopa chairperson said the mix-up presented 'undesirable confusion'. File photo.
The Scopa chairperson said the mix-up presented 'undesirable confusion'. File photo.
Image: Anton Scholtz. File photo

A parliamentary meeting to hear what action Eastern Cape cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Xolile Nqatha has taken against problematic municipalities could not proceed on Tuesday when he told MPs he had not seen a report he was expected to present.

Nqatha was appearing with his department before the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to talk about consequence management in municipalities under investigation.

A few minutes after Nqatha and the department's newly appointed administrative head  Andile Fani began their presentation, MPs noted that what they were presenting was not the same as the document sent to the committee prior to the meeting.

Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa from the IFP said the mix-up presented a "difficulty".

Nqatha explained that the presentation he had initially loaded from his side and which “I had sight of” had been prepared for a meeting with Scopa that was postponed last month.

He said there were two other presentations “in which a few changes have been made, but I don't know which are those changes”.

“I will be guided by the committee whether we should proceed with the one I had sight of. You know it was going to come here with my approval, so I don't know, chair, you can guide me,” he said.

He said the confusion could have been due to transition in the department with many people "dealing with these matters".

Fani took up his position last Monday.

“It's an undesirable confusion, MEC. It does not sit well when a presentation would come before us and you haven't had sight of it. That on its own raises very serious and fundamental questions,” said Hlengwa.

The meeting was postponed.

TimesLIVE

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