15 Feb 2013

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele has told Parliament that that he cannot say with certainty when action will be taken regarding the 20 headmen of arbitration who were recommended for payment of an allowance.

Answering a question from Kgalagadi North MP, Mr Phillip Khwae, Minister Siele explained that nationally, there were 351 headmen of arbitration, who, if paid an allowance, would get a total of over P12 million annually. 

Parliament was informed that the recommendation was submitted by the Hukuntsi Tribal Administration office in 2009 on account of freezing of new posts and financial constraints.

He said 1 631 headmen of arbitration were paid over P56 million annually adding that inconsistence in the payment of the allowance were caused by funding constraints.

Minister Siele further explained that while he acknowledged that there could be a negative impact on their performance; headmen of arbitration performed tasks as assigned to them by their dikgosi.

He said this voluntarism also served as a development initiative for consideration into other positions of bogosi in the future.

MP Khwae had asked the minister when he would take action regarding the names of headmen of arbitration who were recommended for payment of an allowance as submitted by the Hukuntsi Trial Administration in 2009 and whether there were any headmen of arbitration nationally who were not paid this allowance, if so, how many were paid and how many were not.

The MP had also wanted the minister to explain what led to inconsistencies in the payment of this allowance and whether this did not have a negative impact on their performance. ENDS