Cape Town - The Western Cape government is in breach of its own constitution for its failure to appoint an environmental commissioner and the issue needs to be urgently addressed, according to provincial ANC leader in the legislature Cameron Dugmore.
Dugmore was speaking during a meeting of the standing committee on the premier and constitutional matters.
“We finally have a children’s commissioner, but one of the outstanding issues in the province is that even though the constitution has a similar provision for an environmental commissioner, we still do not have one,” said Dugmore.
“I would like to request that it be put on the agenda for our next committee meeting that we should get the department of the premier to say where the province stands on this issue,” said Dugmore.
Committee chair Ricardo Mackenzie meanwhile informed the committee that it would receive a briefing from Nexus Forensic Services, the company that carried out the lifestyle audits on the premier and his cabinet on October 21.
“That was the first date on which all parties concerned, including the premier and the director-general, can be present together,” said Mackenzie.
Premier Alan Winde released the audit report on August 4 and said it had given the cabinet a clean bill of health and revealed no conflicts of interest.
Cape Argus