Parliamentary Communications Services writer, Abel Mputing, interviewed the Whip of the Free State NCOP delegation, Mr Itumeleng Ntsube, on the efficacy of the Provincial Week Programme and what in his view stood out as major challenges that the province’s bulk infrastructure is faced with and how they can be resolved.
Question (Q): Of all NCOP’s flagship oversight programs, what is unique about the Provincial Week?
Answer (A): As a concept, the Provincial Week is unique in a sense that it affords us, as the permanent delegation of the Free State Legislature to NCOP, an opportunity to interact with municipalities and the provincial government departments to get a sense of what are the real, real service delivery issues and challenges that the province is grappling with. And which of those require the attention of the national government and how the NCOP can assist in soliciting executive undertakings on them.
Q: If you were to rethink, refine and redefine the Provincial Week as a concept, what would you do?
A: Nothing much I would change. The Provincial Week is a well thought out concept of intergovernmental relations and a cooperative oversight instrument that seeks to instill accountability. But If I were to add anything, I would propose that we should have a follow-up strategy for accountability. For instance, if we came to Matjhabeng Municipality this year, we should be able to revisit it again and check the progress on projects we visited and the executive undertakings thereof. And if there’s none, the NCOP should put measures in place to fast-track their progress. This is a proposal that is currently on the table in the NCOP. When consensus has been reached on it, it will be implemented and will form part of our oversight machinery.
Q: What is your impression of this year’s Provincial Week in the Free State Province?
A: There’s an appreciation by the delegation that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel as it relates to the upgrade of bulk infrastructure in Mangaung, Matjhabeng, Bloemfontein Water Board and human settlement portfolio. Speaking of which, I am impressed by the modern state of the art of the human settlement development project at Vista Three.
But also, our visit to the province has shown that there’s a lot that still needs to be done to upgrade the bulk water and sanitation infrastructure especially in Matjhabeng Municipality. Our report will petition the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to declare Matjhabeng Municipality a provincial disaster. So that the national government can intervene directly and expeditiously to sort out its raw sewerage, water and sanitation infrastructure problems to relieve its residents from the hazardous situation they currently find themselves in.
On road infrastructure, we are happy that major road networks that were dilapidated are being restored and are nearing completion. We are quite content about that. But we wish to raise our concern about the big 5 companies that monopolize the road development projects in the province. And the phenomenon of construction mafias that hampers the restoration of critical service delivery infrastructure in the province.
Q: What do you think is a root cause of some of the infrastructure challenges that Free State municipalities and provincial government departments are faced with?
A: The collapse of infrastructure in the province can be attributed to the lack of management. We should accept that we can build infrastructure as and when is needed, but the failure to manage it properly and guard it against the emerging culture of theft and vandalism of state assets would remain counter-productive. As such, municipalities and provincial governments must develop the necessary capacity to manage their infrastructure assets if the state were to derive value from them.
Q: How can some of these challenges be resolved?
A: If municipalities could hire credible, skillful and qualified people in critical service delivery portfolios, they could easily overcome many of the bulk infrastructures, governance and financial management challenges they are often saddled with. Reflecting on our engagement with municipalities, provincial department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, roads and transport, human settlements and Bloemfontein Water Board, the maintenance of existing infrastructure should be their chief priority. And maintenance should now be approached as a stand-alone competency that should be complemented by necessary skills and competencies to ensure that bulk infrastructure is constantly maintained and is capable of being the pipeline of service delivery as intended. We have observed that most bulk service delivery infrastructure is collapsing because there are no requisite competencies in municipalities to routinely maintain them.
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