1. Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs PROVINCIAL BOUNDARY MATTER AFFECTING MATATIELE COMMUNITIES IN THE EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE Date: 14 AUGUST 2012

2. Presentation outline Introduction Background Court Cases Consultation Wayforward

3. Background  Prior to 2006 Local Government Election, Matatiele and its rural villages of Maluti located under the Alfred Nzo District Municipality were Cross-boundary municipalities administered jointly by the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces.  The enactment of the Twelfth Constitution Amendment Act, 2005 by national Parliament abolished Cross- boundary municipalities and these municipalities are now exclusively administered by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government.  The abolition of cross boundary municipalities lead to Matatiele being incorporated into Eastern Cape

4. Court Case The Matatiele Local Municipality challenged the constitutional validity of the Twelfth Amendment and the Repeal Act and the matter was heard on 14 th February 2006. The Court discovered that there were procedural issues in relation to the correctness of the consultation/public participation process. On 18 August 2006, the Court ruled in favour of the municipality and ordered the National Government to satisfy the requirements of public participation within the period of 18 months, which the province adhered to

5. Court Case The Matatiele community filed another court application on 10 October 2008 challenging its incorporation into Eastern Cape Province The Constitutional Court ruled against their application. The ConCourt ruling did not deter government to look at the grievances that were made by the community Government received the report during April 2009, on the consultation processes with communities of Matatiele Local Municipality and other aggrieved communities The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (on behalf of government) conducted further consultation with the affected communities.,

6. Consultation Following this, an in-depth consultation in the form of survey was conducted in the Matatiele Local Municipality from 28 to 31 October 2009 This was conducted in a manner that afforded the community an opportunity to record and view the results published on a daily basis for the duration of the consultation. The results, was to be considered with other factors, to inform government to make an informed decision on the complaint.

7. REASONS FOR INCORPORATION BY COMMUNITIES Amongst others: Access to services: Distance from Matatiele to Bisho is far compared to travelling from Matatiele to Pietermaritzburg; Service delivery: communities cite poor or lack of service delivery in the Eastern Cape Province, whilst they believe they will get better services in KwaZulu-Natal; and Historical location of Matatiele area was between the former Natal and Cape provinces 7

8. Wayforward Government will pronounce on the matter in due course The Minister will advice the Portfolio Committee on status of this matter in three months