Veteran ANC member Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has just been given what most people have referred to as the “stinking job”. It entails going around the country focusing on sanitation issues to see first-hand the incompetence of some of the government’s appointed contractors.
According to Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Madikizela-Mandela and three other people will be part of a team tasked with looking at the problem of unenclosed or incomplete toilets countrywide.
These government officials gave contracts to companies that often just took the cash and disappeared without doing any work. Nobody was willing to hold them to task because such scams often involved local politicians and administrators. Many of the companies were incapable of delivering.
In areas like Makhaza in Cape Town and the Moqhaka municipality in Free State, the public only came to know about the problem because politicians were feuding among themselves.
In the build-up to this year’s local government elections, some politicians drew media attention to some of the poor work carried out in the name of improving people’s lives.
In Madikizela-Mandela, Sexwale could not have chosen any better person. Given her deep connections with communities and the way she’s held in high esteem by the majority of South Africans, Madikizela-Mandela is the right person for the job.
That is why Sexwale and the government should have set up a team to focus on many other elements of reconstruction and development, and included people from other relevant government departments.
The poor workmanship in public works projects currently is a serious problem. Provinces are littered with incomplete schools and clinics, as well as other completed government buildings that are empty.
Go to Driefontein and Daggakraal in Mpumalanga, as well as Ficksburg in Free State and you will find these.
The media have been able to pick up problems in the cities but the situation is worse in rural areas.
Some contractors were given jobs to build new toilets. Instead of moving into communities with roaring tractors, people were asked to dig the toilets themselves and were told the government would only come to erect the enclosures. Today, some people are still waiting.
Somebody has to account for this.
The fact that we have had many governments since 1994 being elected into office should not count much because in most instances, the ANC has been the ruling party. So investigating these projects should not be seen as an attack on those who led government at different times.
A politician of Madikizela-Mandela’s stature and seniority is the right person for the job. She has nothing to lose. She’s been at it all and is not punted as one of those with serious political ambitions.
The thrust of her contribution now is to go out there and investigate what is being done by the tender brigade that wants to fleece government of every cent in the public purse, and to ascertain if this is really what she went through all the hardship for during the struggle.
Can Parliament please give her a five-month leave of absence because this “stinking job” is really important? And by the way parliamentarians should have done these inspections long ago.
- thenewage
According to Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Madikizela-Mandela and three other people will be part of a team tasked with looking at the problem of unenclosed or incomplete toilets countrywide.
These toilets were built by contractors who did shoddy work and, since 1994, connived with corrupt government officials to steal money from the state.
These government officials gave contracts to companies that often just took the cash and disappeared without doing any work. Nobody was willing to hold them to task because such scams often involved local politicians and administrators. Many of the companies were incapable of delivering.
In areas like Makhaza in Cape Town and the Moqhaka municipality in Free State, the public only came to know about the problem because politicians were feuding among themselves.
In the build-up to this year’s local government elections, some politicians drew media attention to some of the poor work carried out in the name of improving people’s lives.
In Madikizela-Mandela, Sexwale could not have chosen any better person. Given her deep connections with communities and the way she’s held in high esteem by the majority of South Africans, Madikizela-Mandela is the right person for the job.
But perhaps Sexwale should have sought buy-in from other ministers and then broadened the task team’s mandate, to look at poorly managed government projects, including incomplete houses and public works countrywide.
Madikizela-Mandela is bound to be shocked by what she sees if she does venture out to the right places.
In provinces like Mpumalanga, Free State, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, it is heartening to see the ongoing reconstruction that’s done in most communities. But as soon as you go deep into communities, the optimism gives way to disappointment because of the many public works projects that have been abandoned before completion.
Most of these are houses, and of course, toilets, but there are many incomplete roads as well.
That is why Sexwale and the government should have set up a team to focus on many other elements of reconstruction and development, and included people from other relevant government departments.
It is only through such an approach that the state will be able to clamp down on corrupt officials and the sloppy contractors.
The poor workmanship in public works projects currently is a serious problem. Provinces are littered with incomplete schools and clinics, as well as other completed government buildings that are empty.
Go to Driefontein and Daggakraal in Mpumalanga, as well as Ficksburg in Free State and you will find these.
The media have been able to pick up problems in the cities but the situation is worse in rural areas.
Some contractors were given jobs to build new toilets. Instead of moving into communities with roaring tractors, people were asked to dig the toilets themselves and were told the government would only come to erect the enclosures. Today, some people are still waiting.
Somebody has to account for this.
The fact that we have had many governments since 1994 being elected into office should not count much because in most instances, the ANC has been the ruling party. So investigating these projects should not be seen as an attack on those who led government at different times.
A politician of Madikizela-Mandela’s stature and seniority is the right person for the job. She has nothing to lose. She’s been at it all and is not punted as one of those with serious political ambitions.
The thrust of her contribution now is to go out there and investigate what is being done by the tender brigade that wants to fleece government of every cent in the public purse, and to ascertain if this is really what she went through all the hardship for during the struggle.
Knowing her, she is likely to have little good to say in her report to Sexwale come January next year unless she’s considerate of the forthcoming elective ANC conference at the end of the year.
Can Parliament please give her a five-month leave of absence because this “stinking job” is really important? And by the way parliamentarians should have done these inspections long ago.
- thenewage
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