Local Government, Environ-mental Affairs and Development Planning
With regard to City of Cape Town’s property, including official accommodation:
- What policy currently governs the provision of official accommodation to employees of the City of Cape Town;
- whether the City of Cape Town maintains a central database of all its official accommodation; if not, why not; if so, (a) how many Council properties are currently occupied by employees of the City of Cape Town, (b) how many Council properties are currently occupied by employees without a valid or current lease agreement, (c) how many Council properties are occupied by employees where the City of Cape Town receives (i) a “nominal” rent, (ii) a “market-related” rent and (iii) no rent and (d) how many Council properties are occupied by persons where a change of employee status (for example termination, retrenchment, retirement, death, promotion, demotion or transfer) should have resulted in vacation of the Council property by those persons;
with regard to the following Council properties: (a) Pinewood, Molteno Road, Oranjezicht, (b) 1 Silverboom Avenue, Welgelegen, (c) 2 Silverboom Avenue, Wel-gelegen, (d) 23 Rochester Road, Bantry Bay, and (e) 76 Kloofnek, Tamboerskloof, (i) who are the tenants of these properties, (ii) what positions do they hold in the City of Cape Town, and (iii) what has been the annual rental collected per property since 2010?
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 or 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.
