Chapter 29:15 URBAN COUNCILS ACT (4) Where any council or local authority objects to the exercise by the Minister of any powers conferred by subsection (3), the Minister shall appoint investigators in terms of section three hundred and eleven to hold an investigation into the objections and to report to him thereon and that section shall apply accordingly. (5) On receiving the report submitted in terms of subsection (4), the Minister may make such order as he thinks fit. (6) If the Minister has ordered a council to draw up a deed of agreement in terms of subsection (3) and the council fails or refuses to do so within such period as the Minister may direct, the Minister may, on behalf of the council, enter into such a deed of agreement, and that deed of agreement shall be binding on the council and the other party or parties thereto as though it had been entered into by the council. (7) If the agreement concerned so provides, a joint committee referred to in paragraph (j) of subsection (2) shall be a body corporate capable of suing and being sued in its own name and having such powers as may be conferred upon it by the agreement concerned. 224 Joint committees by agreement and joint boards (1) In this section— “councillor” includes a member of a local authority, however designated. (2) Subject to this section, any council and any other local authority may, on such terms and conditions as may be agreed between them, combine for any purpose which they may by law perform and in which they are jointly interested, including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the purpose of conducting and managing their affairs and the employment of their employees. (3) Any agreement referred to in subsection (2) may, inter alia, provide for any or all of the following— (a) the appointment of a joint committee of the parties thereto consisting of such number of councillors as is specified in the agreement and the delegation to such committee of any function relating to any purpose for which the parties have combined; (b) the joint exercise in any other manner by the parties thereto of any of their functions; (c) the supply by any one or more of the parties thereto or on behalf of the other parties of any service for which they have combined in terms of this section on terms and conditions specified in the agreement which may, in addition, provide that, notwithstanding anything in this Act or any other law, councillors of other local authorities may be appointed members of any committee or subcommittee of the party or parties providing the service for the purpose of dealing with matters arising from the provision of the service. (4) The expenses of any joint committee appointed under an agreement or combination of local authorities referred to in this section shall be defrayed by the local authorities concerned in the proportions specified in the agreement, and the proportion of the expenses falling to be defrayed by any local authority shall be defrayed by the local authority in the same manner as they would have been defrayed had the service been provided by that local authority. (5) The Minister, on the application of all the local authorities concerned, may, by statutory instrument, declare a joint committee appointed in terms of this section to be a body corporate with such name as may be determined by him, and that joint committee shall thereupon be a body corporate, to be known as a joint board, capable of suing and being sued in its own name and shall have such powers as may be conferred upon it by the agreement referred to in subsection (2). 225 Joint committees by Minister’s authority and joint boards (1) Subject to this section, if it appears to the Minister that it would be of advantage to combine a council with any other local authority or local authorities with which it may combine in terms of section two hundred and twenty-four for any purpose which those local authorities may by law perform, the Minister may make an order combining the local authorities for such purpose: Provided that no such order shall be made unless— 84