By Hon. X Ngwezi
Spokesperson on Economic Development
Delivered at Parliament in OAC
15 May 2018- 10:00am
Vote 04: Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Honourable Chairperson,
As the IFP we would like to start off by stating that we are in agreement with and support this budget vote.
That we have very good intentions but the greatest challenge is that the people who are the drivers of transformation and development in our communities especially counsellors are being killed at an alarming rate therefore COGTA and government as a whole should devise a succinct plan to ensure that such individual carry out their mandated roles under safe and workable conditions.
There certainly needs to be in place a better action plan to prevent these killings especially in the high risk areas of KwaZulu Natal where the killings have been more prevalent as well as some areas of the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. These unsafe working condition do not only rob innocent people of their lives and their families of their loved who often times are breadwinners but also compromises service delivery playing a counteractive role in the visions and aims of the Department. These acts have put the department of COGTA undermining the integrity of the department and playing it under disrepute.
Whats more is that Local government is riddled with overwhelming corruption that it renders any initiative almost futile before it even gets off the ground. A lot more effective mechanisms needs to be put into action in order to combat and weed out corruption at grass root levels. This needs to begin with strict ramifications for those groups and individuals that are charged and found guilty of corruption, they need to be blacklisted and made unable to ever hold positions in local government in order to put a stop to the trend of individuals who leave one office under shady circumstances in one municipality and are found holding similar or same positions at another municipality. This trend renders the fight against corruption impractical.
Local government Municipalities have always suffered a shortage of or a total lack of sound infrastructure. If it exists it is poorly maintained and it remains in extremely poor conditions often times making it impossible to utilize yet more and more funds are being allocated to the entities tasked with infrastructure delivery. The funds allocated Municipal Infrastructure Support Agents should be utilized wisely in order to meet the aspirations of the NDP.
We support this budget Vote.
I thank you.
