(1) A local planning authority may establish a committee, consisting of such number of members, being not less than three, as that authority may determine, and may delegate to that committee any powers, duties or responsibilities conferred or imposed on a local planning authority by this Act or by an operative master plan or local plan or an approved scheme:
Provided that—
(i) if the local planning authority contains members who have been appointed by the Minister in terms of subsection (4) or (6) of section ten, all the members so appointed shall be members of the committee;
(ii) the local planning authority shall not delegate to that committee the responsibility to adopt any master plan or local plan or alteration thereto or to submit to the Minister any master plan or alteration thereto or to approve any local plan or alteration thereto.
(2) A local planning authority such as is referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) or subsection (2) of section ten may on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit, appoint as members of the committee established in terms of subsection (1) persons who are not members of the local planning authority but the number of members so appointed shall be less than the number of other members of that committee who are members of the local planning authority.
(3) A local planning authority may delegate to any of its employees or, in the case of a local planning authority referred to in subsection (2) of section ten, to any employee of a local planning authority which is a constituent of the combination, the power to determine an application which—
(a) is made under Part V or under any order made in terms of that Part or is made under Part VI; and
(b) relates to land covered by an operative master plan or local plan or an approved scheme; and
(c) does not in terms of that plan involve special consideration of the circumstances of the particular case or in terms of that scheme, as the case may be, require the special consent of the local planning authority:
Provided that an employee, in the exercise of the powers delegated to him in terms of this subsection, shall not make any decision which conflicts with the operative master plan or local plan or approved scheme, as the case may be.
(4) Any delegation made in terms of subsection (1) or (3) may be made subject to such conditions as the local planning authority deems fit and may be amended or withdrawn at any time:
Provided that any amendment or withdrawal shall not invalidate anything done in pursuance of a decision lawfully taken by the committee or employee before the date of such amendment or withdrawal.
(5) Any delegation made in terms of subsection (3) shall be made to the employee concerned by name or by his official designation.
(6) Any person who is aggrieved by a decision of an employee acting under powers delegated to him in terms of subsection (3) may, within one month of being notified of that decision—
(a) appeal in writing to the local planning authority and that authority may amend or rescind the decision appealed against:
Provided that subsection (12) of section twenty-six or subsection (10) of section forty, as the case may be, shall apply, mutatis mutandis, in relation to the amendment by the local planning authority of any permit granted by the employee;
(b) apply to the local planning authority to suspend the decision of the employee pending the hearing of the appeal in terms of paragraph (a) and that authority may, if it thinks fit, suspend the decision appealed against.