Chairperson,
May I start off my budget speech and congratulate Minister Gugile Nkwinti with his appointment as Minister of Water and Sanitation.
Minister, your department is in ICU, with a toxic virus called Nomvula Mokonyane that has infected the department to its core.
Now the question is, will the department survive this toxic virus under Minister Nkwinti as the new Minister?
This department is bankrupt with unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as the new norm.
Irregular expenditure increased 1800% from R330 million in the 2014/15 financial year to a shocking R6.4 billion in the 2017/18 financial year.
This Department will have to pay more than R8 billion on accruals, overdrafts and unbudgeted commitments out of the current financial year.
This includes:
- R2.2 billion on accruals from the 2017/18 financial year;
- R2 billion on the overdraft with the South African Reserve Bank;
- R848 million owed to municipalities and water boards;
- R2.5 billion payable to Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA); and R737 million for the War on Leaks not budgeted for
Minister you need to explain to Parliament, who instructed the department to hide that the War on Leaks was under administration and why?
The payment of more than R8 billion in accruals will see the Department fail to meet its own strategic goals and objectives. The result: little to no infrastructure development, maintenance and dam safety upgrades.
The Department is not living up to its own slogan: “Water is Life and Sanitation is Dignity”. Minister, your department failed to eradicate the filthy, undignified bucket toilets in South Africa.
A project aimed to be completed by 2016, it is still ongoing and incomplete, and costing the state billions.
R3.5 billion was spent on boreholes and water infrastructure. The result: still no water!
The failure and the collapse of this department started under Minister Mokonyane who made it her number one priority to protect Jacob Zuma and ignore the Auditor-General and National Treasury’s reports on the status of her department.
Minister Mokonyane needs to take full responsibility for the mess in the Department and she definitely has a case to answer for failing millions of people struggling without water, due to poor infrastructure, possible corruption and the gross mismanagement of this critical department.
Chairperson, while Minister Mokonyane has messed up the Department of Water and Sanitation, the ANC Government and President Cyril Ramaphosa ignored this and just shifted her to another portfolio. This is a disgrace!
Minister Nkwinti, the buck stops with you to fix this mess. No more talking and talking. It’s now your responsibility to sort out this department and remove officials that are involved in creating this mess.
Chairperson, the DA would like to see the Minister’s plans and time framework for how he will turn around this department along with the tabling of the Water Master Plan and the Blue and Green drop report.
The DA welcomes and supports the move to launch a full-scale Parliamentary inquiry into the affairs and financial failure of the Department of Water and Sanitation.
Minister, jou besluit om jou voorganger se ongeldige besluit oor die Clanwilliam Dam nietig te verklaar word deur die DA verwelkom. Die her-aanstelling van die departement se konstruksie eenheid sal
belastingbetalers baie geld spaar.
Volgehoue druk deur die DA het gehelp om die departement te verplig om hul gronwetlike verpligting na te kom en die projek weer op koers te plaas.
Die bou van die dam sal verligting bring vir landbou en dorpe wat afhanklik is van die Clanwilliam Dam. Die DA sal ook verseker dat Minister Mokonyane betaal vir hierdie vrugtelose uitgawe met die stop van die projek.
South Africans, we need total change to protect our water resources and the DA will bring that change in the 2019 Elections.
The sooner the elections, the better for South Africa!