My grandmother used to say “Daar is baie myle tussen doen en se”, the English meaning of which is that there are many miles between doing and saying. And with this Department and its Budget we can clearly see the truth of this.
Over the years, the KZN Public Works Department has gone from saying that it is the ‘Implementer of Choice’ – to now wanting to be the implementer of choice. In short, there is a total breakdown in trust between the Department of Public Works and its client departments. And with this Budget – by new MEC Peggy Nkonyeni – we are also informed that while the Department wants to take over all maintenance tasks at all its properties, while in the same breath admitting that it does not have the capacity to do so.
Condemnable buildings
This is frightfully clear when we look at the lack of maintenance of buildings belonging to this Department while the Budget speaks to doing work on just 20 buildings. To put this in perspective, this Department owns 13 000 properties in this province with so many already in a dreadful state. This is impacting on real people.
One such example is the Excelsior SAPS flats on the Berea in eThekwini which stands right on the Ridge, and which can be seen as a monument of this Department’s failure for kilometres around, both from the inland and the ocean. This building has and continues to negatively impact on the lives of neighbours whose property prices have not only plummeted but who must also put up with awful smells, rats and other health dangers on a daily basis.
More importantly though – it is our hard-working police officers and their families who are expected to live in these terrible conditions with raw sewage flowing, windows missing and lifts that never work. The crumbling walls also leave one wondering whether this building should not even be condemned. Furthermore, many of the flats have been invaded and the Department doesn’t actually know who lives here. These flats have even been the subject of a debate in the National Assembly, yet still nothing happens.
The story of Excelsior is repeated all over our province. Yet MEC Nkonyeni’s Budget, as given, continues to fail to address these buildings. It fails to give dignity to those using these buildings – our nurses, our police offers and others serving our communities – and their neighbours.
Yet, despite the Department’s small Budget, we hear that it will be able to find funding to build the new Legislature Precinct. One cannot help but wonder how money can be found for this project, but not for crucial maintenance. Not that the DA is too concerned – the Legislature precinct is a bit like the ‘New Dawn’, something you hear about but never actually see. Looking at the ANC’s shrinking vote share in KZN, a new government will be in place here long before this precinct is ever built.
Public Works a ‘job killer’
The MEC also stated previously that she wants this Department to be a leader in creating job opportunities in the province while the reality is that the KZN Department of Public Works kills jobs. This Department owes Millions of rands to KZN’s struggling municipalities. This means that these municipalities cannot pay their water and electricity bills to Umgeni Water and ESKOM. This means a lack of cash flow to these two entities. When the power goes off, and the water stops flowing, businesses suffer and job opportunities are lost.
Today, the DA calls on MEC Nkonyeni to commit to ensuring that all outstanding monies due to KZN’s municipalities will be paid and to implement measures to streamline these payments. With the Budget as it is, the DA cannot see how she will achieve this but she must at least try. The alternative is that when the lights go off in Mooi River she will have to go and explain why to the people.
The DA fully expects that the MEC will tell us how her Department is responsible for creating jobs through the EPWP programme. Sadly though, this is not real employment. The truth is that it is not assisting at all and is just a way for this ANC-led government to artificially but temporarily push up employment numbers to make themselves look good. This while our people remain poor and unemployed.
The Department is responsible for overseeing the EPWP programmes within KZN municipalities yet there is not one municipality where there are not massive irregularities in EPWP. Jobs being sold while opposition Ward councillors are being side-stepped in the programme for the benefit of card carrying ANC members. Then there is the lack of safety equipment and training. These are just some of the failures of this programme. Sadly, the EPWP programme has become little more than a ‘jobs for pals’ programme.
No contracts for Indians and Whites
Listening to some members of the committee, I also couldn’t help but be very concerned about Social Cohesion in our province. ANC members of the committee raised the issue that the Department should not give any contracts to South Africans of Indian decent, and white South Africans – all in the name of the ANC’s newest little sound bite “Radical Economic Transformation”.
The DA fully supports programmes to help previously and currently disadvantaged citizens to be able to participate in the economy and have access the government contracts. But this must be done through skills development, and in partnership with current contractors. Instead of a racialized and constitutionally troublesome banning of people from contracts, regulations must be implemented which require such business owners to help develop previously disadvantaged contractors.
The particular targeting of South Africans of Indian descent is extremely worrying. This is a population that also suffered under Apartheid. This is a community that was also excluded from economic activity. Exclusion is not the way to address and redress the inequalities still rampant in our country. Development and the creation of more opportunities are.
Giving contracts to small contractors is also not assisting these SMME’s while the government remains guilty in being extremely slow in paying for services rendered. It was shocking to see that the Department has not included the timeous payment of contractors in their APP.
Trouble ahead
In conclusion, the DA foresees some trouble brewing in the relationship between the provincial political leadership of Public Works, and the National leadership. The MEC will have to deal with the DA’s rejected Minister who has clearly brought some of the GOOD ideas she picked up in the DA to her role. In her recent Budget Speech she declared some sweeping cost saving interventions, including a total moratorium on the purchase of new furniture within the Department.
The DA wishes MEC Nkonyeni the best of luck in upholding this and other cost-cutting measures announced by the new Minister and we look forward to seeing how they will be implemented here in KZN. We believe that there will be many miles between doing and saying.