Cape Town — A controversial constitutional amendment to empower the central government to intervene in the affairs of local government without having to change the law each time was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday at its last meeting before the general election.

The Constitutional Seventeenth Amendment Bill has already sparked sharp criticism, most notably from the Democratic Alliance (DA) which has accused the African National Congress (ANC) of wanting to change the constitution so that it can control all local government in the country even if its loses that power at the ballot box.

At yesterday's post-Cabinet briefing, chief government spokesman Themba Maseko would not be drawn on which towns and cities would be the focus following questions on if it would be used to crack the whip over DA leader Helen Zille and Cape Town, which the ANC does not control.

Maseko said the bill was "approved and will be gazetted for public comments prior to submission to Parliament. This bill vests national government with new powers of intervention at local government level to facilitate service delivery and to achieve regional efficiencies and economies of scale at local government level.

"The bill will also facilitate the restructuring of the electricity distribution industry and possible regionalisation of other municipal functions when necessary."

There were situations of national policy positions were being ignored by municipalities. The constitutional amendment would allow the government to enforce the implementation of its policy positions. This was primarily to get all councils to accept and implement the regional electricity distribution system (REDS), designed by the central government but resisted by municipalities, chiefly Cape Town.

Municipalities were not investing enough to maintain electricity infrastructure, which could cause big power failures if not corrected.

Asked why the law was so widely phrased that it would allow almost unfettered intervention in local government, Maseko said that this was to avoid having to return again and again to amend the constitution each time a national policy position was not properly implemented at local level. Too many amendments would diminish the stature of the constitution, he said.

Maseko also indicated that Health Minister Barbara Hogan would keep her job after apologising to her colleagues in the Cabinet for criticising the decision to bar the Dalai Lama from the country last month.

"I am confident she is not going anywhere," he said. "She was able to apologise to colleagues because of the impression she may have created that the government does not respect human rights. The matter was resolved to the satisfaction of everyone."

Hogan was reprimanded in March after she broke ranks with colleagues, and criticised the government's decision to deny the Tibetan spiritual leader a visa to attend a peace conference linked to the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Maseko said the Cabinet noted that SA's next president, certain to be Jacob Zuma, would be inaugurated on Saturday May 9, the first time an inauguration takes place at a weekend.

Maseko said that this was because there were already too many public holidays with attendant loss of production in the first half of the year, and the idea was to avoid the loss of another working day.

The government "calls on everyone not to allow any attempt to prevent free, fair and peaceful elections in every corner of our country", Maseko said.

Councils were not investing enough to maintain electricity infrastructure, which could cause big power failures if not corrected