The NCOP is this week hosting a Three Sphere Planning Session on the theme: “Towards an Oversight Agenda for the Seventh Parliament: Delineating Key Oversight Priorities for the NCOP in the Seventh Parliament”. The session forms part of the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP’s) objective to promote cooperative governance and intergovernmental relations and ensure that the three spheres of government work together when they fulfill their constitutional functions.
The aim of the session is to ensure appropriate mechanisms and systems are put in place to address policy implementation weaknesses and coordination disjunctures across the three spheres of government.
Day one of the three-day programme saw ministers, deputy ministers and senior government officials from the Government of National Unity (GNU) share their departments’ plans and commitments to coordinated planning for better service delivery and economic development.
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Mr Dean McPherson, spoke about the department’s plan to contribute to the government’s programme of action to achieve inclusive economic growth. “We want to use infrastructure to reignite the economy and create jobs in South Africa. Unemployment has reached historic levels and any policy or plan that is not evidence-based and not creating employment must be discarded,” said the Minister.
He said the department plans to expand the role and size of the construction industry to contribute to economic growth and create jobs that will improve the lives of the people. “Our view is that infrastructure investment will lead to lower unemployment and a prosperous South Africa. The intention of the GNU is to turn the country into a construction site”, he said.
The department also plans to increase spending on infrastructure, tackle under expenditure on infrastructure, and ensure budget for infrastructure maintenance across all three spheres of government. One of the biggest threats to infrastructure development is the rise of the construction mafia, which the Minister said was hampering trust in the sector and further complicating investor confidence. Mr MacPherson believes that apart from tackling this matter through crime-fighting agencies, a change in policy is also necessary to ensure that government does not incentivise criminality.
He also went on to explain how the 30% set aside for local procurement is providing a gateway for the rise of the construction mafia and he proposed to review this provision. While the rule has not been legislated, it has been institutionalised over the years and has created an opportunity for the construction mafia. “Under the 30% rule, many criminal syndicates believe they are entitled to 30% of the project and without it the project cannot go ahead. They violently threaten construction crews until they receive the cash they believe they are entitled to,” the Minister explained. “Our view is that the 30% rule should be reviewed in such a manner that we are able to empower local communities without creating the incentivisation of the mafias,” he said.
Other challenges confronting the infrastructure sector, which the department plans to address, include underspending by municipalities, project delays, cost overrun and shoddy workmanship.
The Deputy Minister Transport, Mr Mkhuleko Hlengwa, presented his department’s commitment to coordinated planning and plans to contribute to economic growth through road infrastructure. He told the NCOP summit that government has approved that the fixing of potholes be addressed as a national project. Local expertise should be employed and, where possible, this project should be used to develop skills. The paving of rural roads could become community projects.
The Department of Transport is mandated to collaborate with all appropriate stakeholders in the public sector and potential partners in the private sector to put together a concept document and an implementation plan and funding model for direct national intervention to fix potholes and for general road refurbishment and improvement.
The Deputy Minister said the national department is also ready to assist provinces and municipalities in addressing road infrastructure challenges. “We are going to do our part in the economic reconstruction and recovery. We commit to work with other departments and the NCOP to reduce accidents and deaths on our roads,” said Deputy Minister Hlengwa.
Another member of the executive from the economic cluster, Ms Samantha Graham-Mare, the Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy, warned that while there is no loadshedding currently, South Africa is out of the woods yet. Loadshedding remains a risk until the sector is stable, she said.
The Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Zuko Godlimpi, spoke about the importance of economic planning, and he mentioned loadshedding as the starkest example of failure of planning. He argued that the government is aware there will be a need for additional electricity generation but waited for too long before building new power stations, which resulted in huge economic costs due to loadshedding.
The department is also looking at the spatial transformation of the country’s industrial profiling, which is concentrated in five major metros, leaving the bulk of the land mass without industrial opportunities. In efforts to address this, the department plans to expand the scope of the special economic zones and use them as anchor points for spatial integration.
Sakhile Mokoena
28 August 2024
Arrange a tour