Local Government, Environ-mental Affairs and Development Planning
On 19 April 2021 the City of Cape Town’s subcouncil 23 tabled item 23SUB29/4/2021 recommending to Council the approval of grant-in-aid to the value of approximately R3 million. In the terms of the recommendations four service providers were recommended. These recommendations were made in terms of the Grant-in-Aid Policy of the City of Cape Town. A number of allegations of abuse of food relief funds have been exposed over the past few weeks. According to section 8 of the Grant-in-Aid Policy projects, programmes and expenditure that cannot be funded by means of grant-in-aid in terms of this policy would be disaster management and relief (8.1.2):
- (a) How was this relief approved by the subcouncil, (b) in terms of which delegated authority was the grant-in-aid approved by the subcouncil and (c) what are the terms of reference for the implementation of the food relief fund that has been made available by the City of Cape Town;
- whether he will, given these alleged transgressions of the Grant-in-Aid Policy and other allegations (including investigations by the Hawks), initiate a section 106 inquiry; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
This question relates to the affairs of the City of Cape Town. The City of Cape Town maintains that parliamentary questions are intended to hold the executive accountable for their official decisions and actions and cannot be used to hold local government accountable for its decisions and actions.
The City of Cape Town further maintains that the Executive Mayor and City Manager are accountable to the City Council for the exercise of their duties, not to the Provincial Parliament.
There is no statutory provision that requires the City of Cape Town to provide information relating to answers to parliamentary questions.
Given the position taken by the City of Cape Town, the above question cannot be replied to at this stage.
A legal opinion has been sought on the position taken by the City of Cape Town.
