Minister, Deputy Minister & Department of Public Works on 2014 Strategic Plan, budget & Annual Performance Plan

Meeting report

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
The Chairperson, Mr B Martins (ANC), said the Department of Public Works (DPW or the Department) did not have a good reputation, and everybody must try to ensure that this was improved. In previous years, the Department of Home Affairs had been referred to as “Horror Affairs” yet that Department, with strong cooperation from the Portfolio Committee exercising oversight (chaired by Mr Martins), and Ministry had managed to turn around. He was thus optimistic that the Committee and the Ministry could similarly work to turn around the image of the DPW, to become a Department of excellence.

Minister of Public Works introductory briefing
Mr Thembelani Nxesi, Minister of Public Works, assured the Committee that he would cooperate towards the improvement of the Department’s image. He emphasised that he accounted to the people and their representatives in Parliament and it was the heart of the democratic process that Parliament hold the executive to account.

Mr Nxesi said that in 2012, a seven year plan of rebuilding the DPW was developed, with the support and expertise of National Treasury (NT). It involved three phases of Stabilisation, Efficiency Enhancement and Sustainable Development. The Stabilisation phase was necessitated by a history of poor performance, inadequate management and financial controls, eight years of adverse audit findings, high levels of corruption and fraud at DPW, as highlighted in the investigations of the Public Protector and the Special Investigating Unit. By now, core business areas had been stabilised, through activities that included listing immovable assets and improving the finances. This helped identify areas of possible collusion for forensic investigations. The process was effective in that a verifiable list of movable and immovable assets owned by the DPW now existed, detailing 107 000 properties. He described this development as “a game changer” as 95% of these properties had been physically verified. DPW could now can start to leverage economic development and job creation.

On the Clean Audit Project, the Director General and Chief Financial Officer had assured the Minister of an improved audit outcome for the 2013/14 financial year. It was a huge task imposing proper controls over the finances of the Department. In relation to irregular expenditure, he said the Department went back as far as 2009 to review some 1. 5 million transactions, as there were no shortcuts when trying to reach good governance and compliance. It was able to stabilise the Department by outsourcing new skills, and the current priority was to consolidate and transfer the skills to build capacity in-house.

In The Efficiency Enhancement phase, the focus would lie on improving business modelling processes of the DPW in the next five years. This involved
- putting into operation a structure that aligned with the mandate of the Department,
- putting proper property management over state equity into place
- professionalising the property business,
- putting governance risk and compliance into operation
- driving compliance and anti-fraud campaigns

This was being addressed through enhancing greater coordination along the construction value chain and the introduction of proper planning methodologies, in the form of infrastructure delivery systems, and training of officials, with assistance from National Treasury. The DPW was developing an ICT plan to be implemented as part of the second phase. The Minister stressed that in the modern information age, a proper and robust ICT platform was essential to the success of the business of DPW.

The Sustainable Development phase also would focus on reviewing the mandate, purpose and responsibilities of the DPW in the different spheres of government. This process would involve consultation with stakeholders that would culminate in Public Works Act. Currently, there was no one overarching piece of legislation governing DPW.

In the next five years, the DPW would also enhance the efficiency of current business operations, employing better planning, performance management and monitoring tools, in a consolidation process that would culminate in the Public Works Act, for sustainable development.

The Minister said that DPW and the Ministry had commitments to the people of South Africa, which they took very seriously. These included:
- the creation of six million work opportunities for the poor and unemployed people, through labour intensive delivery of public services and infrastructure
- public community programmes to facilitate community participation and provide tangible benefits to the community
- expanding the Expanded Public Works programmes (EPWP) qualitatively and quantitatively
- paying stipends to unemployed people in the Programmes
- delivering much more to individuals and their communities
- operationalising property management in the core business including construction management
- building professional and technical capacity in the DPW
- providing accommodation to government
- working with the human resources and change management to promote committed performance and work culture
- looking at the overall work culture in the public service
- translating plans and targets into performance agreements, straight down from the top
- renewing a sustained Programme of Action to renew the built environment, by supporting black and female construction companies and individuals, and property practitioners
- improving the graduation rate of black artisans in the built environment business, from its current 25% black composition

Department of Public Works 2014-2019 Strategic Plan and 2014/15 Annual Performance Plan
Mr Mziwonke Dlabantu, Director General, Department of Public Works, presented the Strategic Plan and the Annual Performance plan.

He highlighted the main strategic objectives, which  included
- building an efficient, competitive and responsive accommodation infrastructure network
- providing strategic leadership and regulation of the construction and property sectors to promote economic empowerment and skills development
- achieving good corporate governance to support effective and efficient service delivery
- providing decent employment through inclusive economic growth
- contributing towards comprehensive rural development

Mr Dlabantu said that the Department would review previous White Papers (Public Works towards the 21st Century, 1997; and Creating an Enabling Environment for Reconstruction, Growth and Development in the Construction Industry, 1999). It would develop a Built Professions Policy. It was intending to prepare and present to Parliament a new Expropriation Act (repealing the Expropriation Act 63 of 1975. It would also develop legislation to establish the Independent Development Trust (IDT) as a public entity and develop a Green Building Policy and Strategy for the Department to give effect to Government’s green economy initiatives.

He summarised some of the strategic risks for the Department, which included increased unemployment due to strained industrial relations, strained Government finances, and price escalations, risk of further collusions in leasing and construction projects, depreciation of the rand and the credit ratings downgrade.

In the 2013/14 financial year, the DPW had faced challenges that included inadequate capacity in critical areas of the business, fragmented ICT systems that compromised data integrity and weak SCM processes and procedures. The DPW had made attempts to address these.

Discussion
Mrs P Adams (ANC) said the DPW was the custodian of job creation. She asked why only 71% of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) budget was used in the previous financial year, saying that this clearly had compromised service delivery and development. She wanted a progress report on the actions of DPW on the money transferred for EPWP grants in enhancing job creation. She asked what criteria were used by DPW to calculate the amounts of grants per province. She asked what happened to unspent budget allocations ,and whether these would be paid back to the national fiscus. She asked how the Department intended to implement “transformation”, which was one its strategic goals. She asked if there was a record of the amount of skills transferred through the EPWP

Ms Adams also asked what criteria were used in identifying inner city projects. 

Ms Adams asked for mechanisms put in place to curtail under-spending on infrastructure, as budget allocations were being reduced because of continual under spending in the Department’s infrastructure budget.

Ms Adams also asked for a register of disabled persons, women and youth who were beneficiaries of infrastructure programmes.

Mr K Mubu (DA) asked the rationale for South Africa maintaining heritage sites in other countries, such as war graves. He asked to what extent money that had been used in the construction at Nkandla compromised the work of the DPW. He asked if the DPW collaborated with the Competition authorities, such as the Competition Commission, to help to break collusion by the construction companies.

Ms L Mjobo (ANC) wanted clarity on the difference between the budget allocations to the Parliamentary Village Management Board, and grants for municipalities.

Mr M Filtane (UDM) asked when the DPW was planning to upgrade existing government buildings, for example making them all wheelchair-friendly, for persons living with disabilities. He had recently witnessed a disabled person struggling to access a government building. He said the Department must put targets, with  timelines, for when it envisaged completing such upgrades.

Mr Filtane said it was embarrassing that African-owned construction companies were side-lined from participating in mega building contracts. He asked what DPW was doing to ensure that African construction companies had the experience and qualifications necessary to participate in mega construction.

Mr Filtane asked for the rationale behind the targets that anticipated that fixed investment in the public sector would remain weak through to 2015 before accelerating between 2016 and 2018

Mr Filtane asked when the Department planned to finalise the physical verification of state assets.

Mr Filtane made the point that DPW was continuously underperforming as it was failing to improve residences of Parliamentary Members.

Mr Filtane pointed out that the DPW acknowledged that it had shortcomings with human resources that were important to achievement of the Department’s vision, mission and mandate. He asked why the DPW was not then establishing an institute or college to teach people the technical skills required for the DPW to resource itself. He said it was embarrassing that the Department did not have the technical skills and technical staff it requires to do its tasks.

Mr S Masango (DA) said it was important to define what was meant by “decent employment”. While the EPWP goal was to create job opportunities, it must also give service delivery and value to employed people. He said the reason for increased public protests was that people did not see any value from the EPWP. He asked if EPWP was more concerned with the quality of job, or quality of project completed, to ensure that real value for money was achieved, and the EPWP must pay on the basis that services were rendered by those it employed.

Mr Masango was concerned that although the Strategic Plan spoke to rural development, the DPW failed to specify indicators to ensure that it was adding value, and he did not see a specific budget for rural development.

Mr Masango pointed out that most of DPW’s inner city focus had been in Pretoria. He asked when DPW was going to move out of Pretoria and start public construction projects in other cities and towns.

Mr Masango complained that the service contracts for maintenance of security systems at various units and repairs and renovation of complexes that were mentioned in the Strategic Plan were not specific, nor were locations indicated, to enable the Committee to do oversight.

Finally, Mr Masango commented that under spending and the decrease of budgets for infrastructure were not good, as this was a Department for creating jobs.  

Mr Jeremy Cronin, Deputy Minister of Public Works, said the Independent Development Trust (IDT) came into existence in the final years of the apartheid regime. It was originally intended as a trust fund to raise a new black elite. The initial capital deposited into this trust was R2 billion. When the apartheid government was overthrown, the IDT became a vehicle from which community development projects were funded. The IDT ceased to be independent, and became an entity run by the DPW.

Mr Cronin made the point, however, that not all the EPWP and community projects were run by DPW. The Department of Social Development (DSD) was leading expanded public employment programmes, whilst the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) led the community works programmes, whilst DPW led the infrastructure development programmes. All municipalities in the country also ran public employment programmes. A Cabinet decision in November 2013 urged the coordination of all public works programmes, which would result in a Presidential Public Works Coordination Commission. He noted that South Africa was doing well in public works programmes, as evidenced from the fact that it had been visited by both the government of Vietnam and the International Labour Organisation. The Cabinet later decided that DPW would house the Secretariat of all public employment programmes. The DPW would monitor effectively all services provided - for example, bridges being constructed and infrastructure being maintained. The maintenance work was mainly done through the EPWP, for it was localised and labour intensive.

Mr Cronin said the definition of “decent work” was employment opportunities for millions of unemployed in South Africa to transform their lives. It involved the payment of “fair and equitable compensation”, which was currently pegged at R71 a day. He said some private sector firms were offering wages lower than the stipend or wage offered by the EPWP, so the compensation under the EPWP was relatively good. He said it was important for the Department to monitor skills transfer of beneficiaries after participating in EPWP. Although public employment programmes were being monitored they would be better managed in the future.

Mr Mandla Mabuza, Deputy Director-General: Key Account Management, DPW, said the maintenance of war graves, heritage sites and memorials was handled by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission which was based in the United Kingdom. This Commission was established with the goal of maintaining all war graves scattered across Africa and Europe as a result of the Second World War. South Africa made a financial contribution to the Commission annually. Other countries making financial contributions included the UK, Canada, New Zealand and India.

Mr Peter Chiapasco, Acting Deputy Director-General: Asset Investment Management, Department of Public Works, said that regulations required that all new buildings be accessible for people with disabilities. With the budget made available, the Department currently targeted improving 100 buildings per annum.

Mr Chiapasco said that the deadline for ensuring a complete asset register was 31 March 2016, and DPW was on track to meet that target. The Department had 95% completed the verifying of assets in relation to deeds.

Mr Dlabantu added that the DPW did set deliverables for each year, and was governed by the requirements of the audit outcome as well as compliance standards. The property of DPW was currently located within the Property Management Division and DPW would deal with issues of valuation in 2015. It would continue to use conditional assessments to look at values against the current evaluation methodology. By 2016, the Department would have a complete and compliant asset register

The Chairperson said that in 1994, when he had served on the then-Portfolio Committee on Public Works, it was noted that the main challenge facing DPW was to compile an asset register of the “Republic of South Africa”, which included those areas under the apartheid government, and the “homelands” and other properties in foreign countries. From 1994 to 1999, there was no asset register that was inherited from the previous regime. He asked if the Department had been able to compile a register of properties from homelands and foreign countries as well.

Mr Dlabantu responded that in the period between 1990 and 1994, certain government property was “moving without explanation” and the DPW was now working in conjunction with other custodian departments, the provinces and the general public, asking them to come forward if they had any information regarding the whereabouts of undisclosed government property in the former homelands, the Republic of South Africa and abroad.

The Chairperson added that the apartheid regime sanctions-busting measures included the acquisition of  properties abroad without officially registering them in the South African government.

Mr Dlabantu answered the questions on collusion amongst construction companies, saying that government had established a structure to deal with collusion. The DPW was collaborating with the Competition Commission around training arrangements and internal control mechanisms, to avoid collusion. A lot of issues had been discovered that must be dealt with through legislation, and the decision on that would be taken further by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIBD).

Ms Lindelwa Myataza, Chairperson, CIDB, said that the process had started with the Competition Commission (CC) and CIBD had waited for agreements to be finalised with companies who had entered into settlement negotiations with the Competition Commission. Three had not yet completed the agreements. There were 22 companies in negotiation and discussion with the CC. The legal process was conducted in line with CIDB regulations. CIDB had appointed an investigative officer and had submitted letters to fifteen companies who had concluded agreements with the CC, and who had, by their collusion, contravened the CIDB Code of Conduct. The CIDB had limited resources and thus had to collaborate with the CC and other agencies of the state where relevant. CIDB obtained extensive information from the Competition Commission, to avoid replicating what the Commission had done. CIDB was ready for the process, and its  investigations could result in having the companies blacklisted from participating in any government contracts. It had submitted details to its legal advisors, asking that they advise the Board on how to move forward. The CIDB was taking the issue of collusion very seriously, with support from the Minister, Deputy Minister and other senior officials, it would be following its Code of Conduct and CIDB regulations, and measures would be implemented where relevant. The CIDB was also going to review the CIDB Act, develop early warning systems and was trying to develop more small and medium constructors, especially Africans. 

Mr Mzwandile Sokupa, Chief Executive Officer, CIDB, added that CIDB had its own Code of Conduct, and possible sanctions ranged from issuing warnings, notices, and suspensions from one year to ten years, as well as deregistration. CIDB was obtaining legal advice in terms of the impact and how the sanctions could be applied. He also noted that the CIDB was, overall, pushing for transformation of the construction industry.

Mr Cox Mokgoro, Chief Financial Officer, DPW, said the allocation to the Parliamentary Village Board was R9 million, and this was mainly for transportation

Mr Cronin said there was poor attendance by Members at the Parliamentary Villages. He understood the challenges and frustrations with the development of Parliamentary housing facilities, but urged them to report any problems timeously, for DPW to be able to respond on time. .

Mr Dlabantu said DPW had moved its inner-city interventions beyond City of Tshwane, and other projects in other cities were happening. It was important that it completed the project of Tswane appropriately. He also noted that the DPW was investigating ways to provide services in one centralised area, as opposed to the current arrangements where a person requiring services from two departments might have to travel to different parts of the city.

The Chairperson said asked for specifics of cities where developments were taking place.

Ms Sasa Subban, Deputy Director-General: Inner City Regeneration, DPW, said other cities included Polokwane, Mthatha, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The Chairperson said those were towns, and the initial engagements had referred to projects taking part “in other provinces”.

Ms Subban clarified that in Polokwane, the DPW had identified 32 000 units of developments and would, with the provincial government and municipalities, work on offering integrated service development to the people. In Mthatha, it was working with the Eastern Cape Government.

Mr Stanley Henderson, Deputy Director-General: Expanded Public Works Programme, DPW, said the criteria for allocating grants was based on the potential to create more work opportunities in the subsequent year, judging from the previous year’s performance. The criteria were developed in consultation with National Treasury.

Mr Henderson noted that in order to promote skills development within EPWP projects, the National Skills Fund existed for training people. He said details of this would be made available if the Committee wished.

Mr Dlabantu acknowledged that performance on infrastructure had been below the expected targets, but said this was due to internal and external factors. Internal factors were being addressed as part of the turnaround strategy, by looking into infrastructure management systems. For example, under the previous systems, the Deputy Director Generals were not held accountable for regional developments, but only the project managers. This had been changed now, with performance expectations starting from the top. The Deputy Director General currently bore responsibility for the performance of project managers.

External issues had included contractors under-performing, with some of the cases involving prolonged legal processes, particularly where some contractors tried to prevent the Department from cancelling contracts through court interdicts. This caused projects to drag out for a long time, until cases had been resolved. In future, he hoped that both the Department’s progress and expenditure were to improve, and results would be shown by the end of the 2014/15 financial year.

The Chairperson rebuked Mr Dlabantu, reminding him that the Committee could not wait for the end of the financial year; it expected to see results much sooner than that. Where project managers lacked skills, it was problematic because the Department should not have appointed people without the requisite skills in the first place. It became the responsibility of the Director General, if this was so, to train them to have the requisite skills, for they were paid to execute certain functions. If they could not, it made “no sense” to have them in place, and this could only be blamed on the Director General. He urged that this situation must cease immediately. The DPW could not employ people and then find itself the victim of non-performance by those people. The same applied to contractors, and the Department needed to correct those failures

Mr Cronin said the Chairperson was absolutely right, and had spoken clearly and to the point. The DPW was  the largest building company owner in South Africa, and was landlord of all public sector properties in South Africa. He agreed that it was important to establish a property management and training institute in the Department, because of massive de-skilling of the public sector in general. The private sector company with whom the DPW contracted had a property lawyer based in London, a CEO in Sandton and a Chief Director who was uncooperative. Most of the corruption it encountered in dealing with the private sector was corporate-based.

Mr Cronin said that the DPW had been approached with an offer for the purchase of the Pollsmoor property, but this had had not yet been attended to.

Mr Cronin said projections that the economic performance of South Africa was to improve from 2015 to 2018 were made by National Treasury and were also based on external predictions from the World Bank for the global economy and local economy. However, economists were not always right, and the Department was aware that these predictions were not always accurate as they were based on Treasury estimates.

Mr Masango was uncomfortable with the answer that the Department had a shortage of technically qualified people. He said his question was directed to how the Department intended to capacitate itself with qualified people, in order to roll out its programmes.

Mr Mubu said the Department had taken a decision to demolish deserted building. He asked why there was still a budget to refurbish the buildings, if they were to be demolished.

Mr S Jafta (AIC) asked if the transfer of money from the infrastructure budget to that for compensation of employees did not have a negative impact on the implementation of programmes. He asked to what extent this had influenced projects already planned by the Department.

Mr Jafta requested whether the Department collaborated with other countries in relation to infrastructure at border entry points, to achieve coordination and uniformity in infrastructure provided for immigration and customs points.

Ms L Mjobo (ANC) asked when the DPW would fill all Acting Deputy Director General posts.

Ms Mjobo pointed out that during protests, there was much vandalising of schools, hospitals and libraries, and asked the DPW to explain what it tried to do to prevent vandalising, and how it would address this and maintenance of these facilities.

Mr Cronin said during public protests, public property was always a target, and the DPW did not have a solution to it. He said protests were usually taking place in the townships and arose from frustration about service delivery, unemployment and poverty. The EPWP and Community Works programmes could be a important mechanism for addressing these challenges. The communities did not have any responsibility for maintaining their schools. He said it was imperative to involve the community in the planning processes, so that they did have a sense of responsibility and ownership of the projects.

The Chairperson agreed that protests resulted often in public buildings being vandalised and it was a responsibility of all the different political parties to impress upon the people that public facilities belonged to them. When he was Minister of Transport, there were public protests regarding a stretch of a necessary road in the Northern Cape that the province was unable to complete, and during these protests, the library was burnt down and schools were destroyed, resulting in children being kept out of school for several months. While the Constitution ensured the right to protest, there was no provision to prevent vandalising of public property.  

Mr Clive Mtshisa, Acting Deputy Director General: Corporate Services, DPW,  said there were three Acting Deputy Director Generals posts, out of eleven. Two positions had been advertised, but these advertisements had been placed very close to the elections, and the Minister had been reluctant to fill the posts at that particular time. He agreed that there were challenges in the DPW of capacity constraints and shortage of technical skills. These were genuine challenges and were common across several sectors in the labour market, where the government had not been able to compete with the private sector on particular skills. Many of the challenges were due to lower remuneration that the government offered when compared to the private sector.

Mr Mtshisa added that the Department had introduced a programme to attract and retain qualified labour, but it had regrettably not been successful in attracting those technical skills. Some of the requirements were that a person must be registered as a professional, have experience and expertise, but these requirements were to the detriment of young people who had not managed to acquire all the skills. This had prompted a review of the organogram of the Department, because the challenges were not necessarily that there was shortage of capacity, but some branches were limited in their ability to absorb capacity, and this had prompted the expansion of branches, especially at the level of Chief Director. DPW had also created a Young Professional Programme that recruited young people until they attained their qualifications. When a relevant position became vacant, the Department would try to absorb them into the system.

Mr Nkosi Vilakazi, Manager: Contracts, DPW, answered the questions on certain projects and clarified that Project 13 related to a defence property in Cape Town and Project 14 was a navy base property in Cape Town. The information on these could be found from a report that had already been compiled on these Projects, which also set out the complexes and descriptions, and he could make it available to the Committee. In regard to the De Wit Project, he noted that this was initially intended for another purpose, and during the assessment of it by the professionals, it was recommended that it would be more effective to demolish it, and the Department would now reflect the change of scope on this project to reflect that the building would be demolished and a new structure put up in its place.

Mr Mokgoro said the budget for replacing inappropriate structures at 36 schools and making aesthetic improvements to 915 schools lay with the Department of Basic Education. The DPW would only implement the project on behalf of that department. Similarly, in respect of rural development, the role of DPW was to assist with planning, and releasing the land for the purposes of spatial rural development, but it did not hold any budget for the implementation.

Ms Subban explained the transfer of funding, in 2010/11, from the ICR Programme, because of non-expenditure on a particular project. An amount of R11 million was transferred from ICR. That transfer did not impact on service delivery. The contractor and consultant had not delivered within the time lines specified. The project was still on the Programme, and was now 76% complete, so there should be final delivery on it by the end of the financial year.

Mr Dlabantu added that there were some other projects where performance was not in line with the plans, and if there was money not being used on those, it would be reallocated.

Mr Mabuza answered, in respect of the ports of entry, that there was a very strong working relationship with a number of SADC countries, and the entire continent. For instance, the Lebombo Border Post was the first “one-stop” border post, between South Africa and Mozambique, created as a result of an agreement between President Thabo Mbeki and President Armando Guebuza, as part of the agenda for consolidating Africa. South Africa agreed to finance the construction of that border post and it was currently being completed.

Mr Mubu asked for clarity on what was meant by “one-stop border post”.

Mr Mabuza said the precedent in Africa in the past was that two countries bordering each other would each build their own border post facilities. Travellers had to be processed through the exit post when leaving the first country, and processed through the entry post in the other. The Lebombo border post was the busiest of all in the SADC. To reduce traffic congestion, avoid delays and deepen relationships between South Africa and Mozambique, a “one stop border post” was set up, to ensure that both exit and entry processing took place simultaneously, reducing red tape and waiting times. The same principle was being applied in Namibia, where another one-stop border post had been erected, because of the close relationships with that country. Another border post between South Africa and Botswana was also almost complete. It would be one of the most economically significant border posts when completed, as it would transport goods and services from South Africa via the Democratic Republic of Congo to the European region. The impact of the construction of this border post, in terms of relations with Botswana, was significant.

There were also negotiations with Zimbabwe around the construction of a one stop border post at Beitbridge. One of the serious challenges facing Beitbridge was the nature of the infrastructure. Nedbank South Africa has already started an option analysis for the one stop border post. DPW was facilitating the Border Control Coordinating Committee. Critical government departments of South African Revenue Services (SARS), DPW, South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) served on this Committee. One of the recommendations was that if working relationships were intensified, problems at Beitbridge would be resolved.

One of the reports indicated that there was a significant amount of trans-regional syndicated crime, and was considerable stock theft, around Maseru Border Post. As a result, DPW had also been engaging with Lesotho and the Free State Agricultural Unit for the construction of a border post and patrol of roads by the SANDF.

Mr Mabuza added that the international work by the DPW was solid. It had concluded the construction of the South African Embassy in Lesotho. It had concluded building at the OR Tambo School of Public Leadership. It was working on getting a lease to build an embassy in Angola although land here was not available for sale, but only on long leases. South Africa had never invested in construction of a border post unless the working relations with the neighbouring country were solid.

The Chairperson said Mr Mabuza omitted to clarify that in a one stop border post; officials of both countries worked together. It was necessary to stress this, in order to make it clear that people would only be cleared by one country if it also was in the interests of the other country.

The Chairperson agreed that stock theft had been raised as a serious issue across the border, when he had served as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. Farm labourers were employed from Lesotho, but were grossly underpaid and after their six month contracts, stock tended to “follow” those labourers across the border.

Ms N Sonti (EFF) said that infrastructure development was supposed to create jobs in communities, but it seemed that the jobs were given to certain people only, and not the whole community. In her municipality, government was building toilets, but it seemed the toilets were allocated according to household party affiliations. She wanted an explanation whether service provision was party-based and to whom the EPWP officials were accounting. She also pointed out that she had observed that people working on road construction projects were always “on tea break”. She asked if they were accountable to the municipality or DPW.

Mr Cronin said that all South Africans were citizens and were entitled to receive services on an equitable basis. The DPW was completely opposed to providing services based on a person’s party-membership card. The jobs and services were supposed to be provided to everybody. When it came to selection of participants in the EPWP, Mr Cronin confirmed that the Department had picked up allegations from some communities that only people from one political party were selected whilst others were excluded. He had heard allegations concerning both the ANC and other parties. That kind of approach was “absolutely problematic and stupid”. Instead of building community cohesion and community ownership of projects, party factions and divisions were being created.

Responding to the observations on the road projects, he noted that people wearing orange overalls could be employed by the provincial or municipal governments. The Department of Transport was also involved with hiring villagers who lived close to the road for maintaining potholes. In one province, the community had established a Community Development Forum, where the projects that were to be undertaken were advertised, and anyone wanting to participate would be invited to a meeting. If there were more people attending than were needed, the community facilitated a public draw to select the participants. This was a prime way of avoiding corruption. While parties competed politically, it was wrong to divide people in poor communities according to their political affiliations.  He urged the Committee to help in stamping out this kind of practice.

Mr Masango thought the Department was too ambitious in hoping for a clean audit for the 2014/15 year, especially considering that the targets of the Department were only 40%, and lower. He thought that at best, it might aspire to an unqualified audit. He also pointed out that many of the outcomes were not substantiated with quarterly targets, to measure progress.

Mr Dlabantu agreed that the Department was indeed ambitious on audit outcomes. However, he maintained that the DPW was aspiring for a clean audit and he believed that if it worked hard, it could achieve it. The Department had always been criticised for under targeting, and if it was able to move away from that, it was also likely to get a clean performance audit.

Mr Cronin added that with the establishment of the Training and Management Entity, there would be two accounting and auditing processes. He said that in this year, the aspiration of DPW was to have an unqualified audit.

The Chairperson said while Members may be sitting at different “imaginary tables”, they all shared a responsibility to the people of South Africa. All Members must work to change the reputation of the DPW. He reminded the Department that it was very important for Members to get all relevant documents a week prior to the meeting, to allow them to engage in an informed manner, having had the opportunity to read and research, and this would be beneficial for everyone. He also noted that the Committee hoped to do oversight through in loco inspections, to keep their fingers on the pulse of what was happening. He encouraged everyone to do their work without fear or favour. He thanked all who had attended.

The meeting was adjourned.