- Hon. members, we have infrastructure budgets in various departments, whilst Public Works saw a drop in 7% of the previous budget. Hon. MEC we welcome you to this department with a lot of expectations. Programme 1 administration has increased whilst the departments core mandate lies in programmes 2 and 3 which have decreased by -11% and – 8% respectively, these will result in Public Works not being able to meet its targets set in the APP.
- Hon. Premier, Public Works has always been treated like the Emzemvelo entity should it or should it not be a stand-alone department.
- This department usually sees changes of MEC’s when Cabinet reshuffles occur. In the tenure of the recent 3 MEC’s, we still have unresolved bottlenecks like the Archibus System. This department needs an Asset Management System, is this so difficult to achieve?, when the targets in the APP requires an efficient and effective IT system to ascertain state assets.
- This Hon House requires a transparent report on what physical assets we own, which are lying derelict which are used and which are leased, to resolve the racially skewed lessors. Concurrently, we also require a list of National departmental assets in KZN.
- The MF believes that the issue of whether all departments should surrender their infrastructure budgets and associated resources to one department, Public Works should now be revisited. This will streamline infrastructure management. A well-managed, centralised infrastructure programme will spur its enabler role in sustained service delivery and being the implementer of choice.
- The MF supports this budget Vote14 with these major recommendations and would like to see urgent improvement in our public policy, hence strategic cost management with regards to the Department of Public Works.
- Thank you.
DETAILS
Debated by: Hon. Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi
Minority Front Leader (KZN Legislature)
Date: Thursday 20 May 2021
Time: 09:30 to 17:00
Word Count: 289 Words