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DA calls on Group Forensics and Investigation Services to disclose report on Ward 53 Lufhereng housing scandal

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the City of Johannesburg’s Group Forensics and Investigation Head,  requesting him to make public the full consolidated report conducted into the allocation of housing in Lufhereng Ward 53.
In 2017 the DA wrote to the GFIS, following complaints and allegations from residents that an ANC councillor was unduly influencing the housing allocation process.
Seven whistleblower who were also members of the Community Delegate Committee were interviewed by the GFIS as part of the investigation.
The scope of the investigation had to further expand as the farm owners where the project had taken place came forward with more information relating to the housing allocation.
A total of six members of the plot owners association were interviewed by GFIS, further interaction took place with the DA where more than 20 plot owners indicated that some were allocated more than one RDP house as part of the payment arrangements by the city.
The DA calls on the Head of the GFIS to compile a consolidated report and to table it to the city’s Housing Section 79 committee within 60 days.
The DA will also write to the Housing Committee in Parliament calling for an an intergovernmental engagement with the city’s Section 79 committee as part of giving updates on the investigation into the housing beneficiary list.
The housing allocation process must always be transparent and open for scrutiny to the public.
The DA is committed to finding out if anyone influenced the process and if anyone unduly  benefitted from the housing allocation, and to ensure that they are held accountable.
We are also committed to working with the residents of Ward 53 in finding solutions to ensure that those deserving of these houses benefit and not those who are connected to certain political parties.
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NYDA wastes over R2.6 million of taxpayers’ money building one RDP house in Evaton

While millions of Gauteng youth are struggling to access sustainable job opportunities and to access funding for their start-up businesses, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has wasted over R2.6 million building one RDP house in Evaton West.

This wasted money could have been used to fund about 25 youth businesses with each being given R100 000 funding.

This information was revealed to me by the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) in a written reply to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Maile, the NYDA appointed a service provider to build an RDP house in Evaton West because they have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Sedibeng District Municipality. The project started in mid-March and was completed in mid-October, and they spent over R2.6 million.

The request for the building of this house was tabled in the Sedibeng Council on 11 December 2020, seeking Council approval to build a house in Evaton West. This follows a letter written by a grade eleven girl from Evaton dated 10 October 2019 to the Sedibeng MMC for Health and Social Development requesting the extension of the RDP house because there are too many occupants, while her mother is ill and unemployed. However, we do not know what the outcome of the discussion was.

The DA conducted an oversight inspection at the house and was disappointed and shocked to discover that there was no extension, however, there was an additional house that was built and left incomplete.

The photo of the house can be accessed here _here_ here_

There are no tiles in some of the rooms in the new house, and the walls have cracks.

The house is not worth R2.6 million as the value of such a house is a mansion.

The DA will be demanding to see a copy of the MOU between the NYDA and Sedibeng. The DA councilors in Sedibeng will request the MOU from the council and challenge the council to conduct an oversight inspection at the newly built house to determine whether there is value for the R2.6 million spent on it. This will allow us to ascertain what role if any the council played in building a new house and if the council had any oversight over the building of this new structure. If it is found that due processes were not followed, we will be demanding that immediate action be taken against the officials and politicians involved.

In addition, should it be found that our taxpayers’ money was misused by officials and politicians they must pay back the money immediately and be held accountable. They must also fix the defects and complete the house.

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DA welcomes new Gauteng Health Head

The DA welcomes the appointment of Dr Nomonde Nolutshungu as the new Head of the Gauteng Health Department.

This appointment by Premier David Makhura is long overdue as this key post has been filled by two acting heads since Professor Mkululi Lukhele left in October 2020 after being implicated in the PPE scandal.

Dr Nolutshungu faces multiple challenges in fixing a department that is notorious for corruption scandals and poor service delivery.

The rot runs so deep that Babita Deokaran, a senior health official, was gunned down last year because she was honest and opposed corruption.

Nolutshungu needs to ensure that the department’s R60 billion budget is spent efficiently and effectively. This can be achieved by following the recommendations in the Auditor General’s annual reports which regularly uncover massive irregular and unauthorised spending.

Another priority is filling all staff vacancies at hospitals as soon as possible, and refurbishing crumbling facilities.

Many patients are suffering because of an alarming increase in surgery backlogs, and lives are lost because of failures in cancer treatment.

Meanwhile, a likely 5th wave of Covid-19 cases places further strain on hospitals.

I look forward to interacting with Dr Nolutshungu to counter the threats as well as highlight opportunities to ensure a decent public health service in Gauteng.

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Underfunded mandates put the lives of Gauteng residents at risk

Unfunded mandates are beginning to place a huge burden on local and district municipalities at a great cost to basic service delivery to the residents.

An unfunded mandate occurs when national government gives the local and district municipalities less money than what they spent on providing a service from their budget so they need to absorb the additional costs which they often can’t afford to do.

This is deeply concerning as our residents pay their rates and taxes and in return expect to receive proper service delivery which these local and district municipalities are unable to deliver because of unfunded mandates.

This information was revealed to me by the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile.

Currently, critical basic services in the West Rand District Municipality (WRDM) such as Fire and Rescue, the Disaster Management Service and Municipal Health Services are the worst affected by the unfunded and underfunded mandates.

This is extremely worrying as it means that when a health emergency or fire emergency breaks outs, the municipality will not be able to respond in time putting the lives of our resident’s health and homes at risk.

According to MEC Maile for the last two financial years, the underfunded mandate amounted to R225 128 791,08.

Furthermore, it is disappointing that no action has been taken as recommended by the financial recovery plan for the transfer of the fire services to Merafong, Mogale and Rand West City Local Municipality. While Disaster Management and Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) would be moved to the provincial government.

Instead, according to the MEC, a task team was set up and a stakeholder meeting was held on 21 January 2022, to discuss the placement of fire services with national and provincial disaster management.

While disaster management is a concurrent national and provincial legislative competence, the function is mandated by an Act of Parliament and Disaster Management is regulated by an Act of Parliament.

Therefore, any change to the delivery of this function must be effected through an amendment.

This response from the MEC clearly shows that there is no political will to ensure that our residents who pay for their basic services can rely on the government to deliver on its core mandate.

I will once again be engaging with the MEC for Finance and e-Government on this matter as the status quo cannot remain. We cannot have a situation where our resident’s property is destroyed especially now with the upcoming winter season because there are insufficient fire trucks to respond to multiple emergencies that may flare up in the affected communities.

It is high time that unfunded and underfunded mandates are a thing of the past as it is nearly impossible to deliver proper services to our residents in the province. This can only be done if the national government ensures that the district and local municipalities in Gauteng are well equipped with the necessary skills needed to ensure that all mandates are fully funded.

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Are Gauteng hospitals ready for the 5th wave of Covid cases?

I am concerned that Gauteng Health Department lacks effective leadership as Covid-19 cases are shooting up in a likely 5th wave as we approach the winter season.

Last month the Acting Head of Department Dr Sibongile Zungu left for undisclosed reasons, and her post remains unfilled.

The Department has not had a permanent head since Professor Mkhululi Lukhele resigned in October 2020 after he was implicated in the misspending of PPE funds.

Other senior posts, including Chief Financial Officer, are still filled by acting personnel.

Yesterday (Sunday 24 April), there were 1727 new cases and 10 933 active Covid cases recorded in Gauteng, compared to 460 and 4 333 active cases a week before. This is an alarming jump.

At this stage we do not know the severity of the Omicron sub-variant which appears to be driving the new wave of cases, but hospitals can expect a flood of Covid patients in the next few weeks.

There are already 1272 Covid patients in both private and public hospitals in Gauteng, which has risen from below 1000 patients less than three weeks ago.

Acute shortages of staff are the main problem in treating Covid patients.

The scandal is that many of the newly built wards for Covid patients are empty because they have no staff or equipment.

Meanwhile, existing medical staff are mentally and physically exhausted by the strain of treating previous Covid patients and the backlogs in treatment for other patients.

Premier David Makhura has failed badly in not appointing competent and honest top managers to fix the perennial crisis in our hospitals which causes huge suffering to patients.

All empty posts should be filled as soon as possible to assist our hospitals to save lives and heal sick people.

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43 cases of robbery close to the Pretoria Zoo, perpetrators continue to terrorise people

There are 52 cases of armed robbery, common robbery, theft, business burglary and carjacking that have been opened at the Pretoria Central Police Station which occurred in an area close to the Pretoria Zoo in Tshwane.

Of these 52 cases opened from January 2019 to February 2022, 43 cases have been filed and remain undetected; only two convictions were made; four cases are still under investigation and three were withdrawn. This is a clear indication that innocent lives are at risk, yet the law enforcement agencies are not doing enough to ensure their safety.

This information was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko in a written reply to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Mazibuko, these opened cases occurred in the area close to the Pretoria Zoo in Paul Kruger Street, the mountain at Capital Park next to the Pretoria Zoo, from Struben Street to Venter Street.

The table below shows the different types of cases that have been opened at Pretoria Central Police Station that occurred in an area close to Pretoria Zoo:

Cases opened Number of cases opened
Robbery with a weapon other than a firearm 16
Armed robbery 12
Business burglary 7
Common robbery 5
Theft general 4
Theft out of motor vehicle and carjacking 3
Attempted armed robbery and attempted murder 2
Common assault and assault GBH 2
Kidnapping, robbery with a weapon other than a Firearm, Possession of Firearms and

Ammunition

 1
Total 52

There has been an increase in the cases in this area. In 2019, there were 12 cases opened, 16 cases opened in 2020, 22 cases in 2021 and two cases for January to February 2022. These include an incident of a matric learner who was attacked and stabbed four times by unknown people outside the school premises.

The fact that there has been an increase in the cases reported and only a few convictions, means that the perpetrators are continuing to terrorise and steal from the residents. This demonstrates that the SAPS’s current interventions are ineffective, and it is failing to ensure the safety of all people residing in the area and those using that route when travelling to various destinations.

Failure by the police to thoroughly investigate cases has resulted in many of these cases being undetected and taken off the court roll due to a lack of sufficient evidence to assist in prosecution.

More convictions need to be made but this can only be done through effective police intelligence and investigations as well as equipping the police with adequate resources.

The safety of all Gauteng residents is of utmost importance and the DA will continue to demand more police visibility in all the crime hotspots to ensure the safety and security of our people. We will constantly engage with MEC Mazibuko and the SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela to establish a mobile police station next to the Pretoria Zoo to make it accessible for people to report crime and to ensure police visibility.

 

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Disrupting Corruption: The Case for Data Science

By Ina Cilliers MPL, DA Gauteng Spokesperson on the Standing Committee for Public Accounts (SCOPA 

South Africa has a big problem with corruption in government supply chains. The most salient recent example would be the looting of funds during the Covid 19 pandemic, specifically the procurement of personal protective equipment in the Gauteng Department of Health. Mark Heywood correctly asserted in the Daily Maverick that unless we introduce the certainty of punishment for corrupt public officials, we will lose the fight against corruption. The “July Insurrection” has taught us that these events affect our daily lives. They cause job losses and food price increases and are especially hard on the Youth sector. Even Cosatu recognized back in 2017 that corruption costs us at least 27 billion rand and 76 000 jobs a year. That was before the pandemic. 

Now imagine a scenario where an accounting officer in the Department of Health can accurately predict the likelihood that fruitless and wasteful expenditure will occur, and act to prevent it? Ponder for a moment the transformative power to predict the likelihood of xenophobic attacks or unrest such as the now infamous July unrest of 2021, so that they may be averted altogether? What if an entire government supply chain can be managed by a distributed ledger like a Blockchain, so that not a single public official is involved? 

Business domains including the banking and insurance industries have been making these kinds of predictions using data science tools for some time now. By employing machine learning to predict risks to its own business models they predict the likelihood of a client defaulting on a loan or instituting an insurance claim. Have you ever wondered why the bank did not want to give you a loan? There is an algorithm behind that!  

Data Science is an emerging field of inquiry usually associated with buzzwords such as Big Data (BD), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). All of these terms have their roots in classical statistics. Stated plainly, statistical learning is quite simply, learning from data (. This is made possible by two conspiring realities: the costs of storing data has decreased enormously over the years, and commensurately, the computational power of hardware has increased exponentially (McCallum, 2008). This means that it is computationally possible to find patterns and correlations in very large datasets (hence, Big Data). One way of understanding this ability is to say: if the data is too large for an Excel spreadsheet, or too large for a CPU to handle, its potentially a job for data science. 

What if we brought data science and good governance into the same room for a chat? I think there are enormous benefits to such an approach for good governance, evidence-based policy making, and in the fight against corruption. Full disclosure: I am wearing more than one hat. 

As a legislator in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) and a member of The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), I often hear well-founded complaints about the ex post facto way we do oversight. The Sector Oversight Model (SOM) adopted by the South African legislative sector is a backward-looking tool. Oversight typically occurs months after irregular public expenditure has occurred. Committee recommendations do not scare corrupt officials. 

As a social researcher and budding code writer (Python is fun!), this makes me wonder of the potential to use an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) or a Decision Tree Regressor as a catalytic mechanism in the fight against corruption. The specific model is not as important as a few reality checks though: 

In the web-native world of data science, anybody can write code, train a computer model, and set it free on real data. This is indeed encouraged by the fact that free and open-source resources are now ubiquitous. According to Urban and Pineda adequately problematizes this abundance of free information: Most of it is not sufficiently rigorous to warrant deep enquiry, and few resources, if any, are aimed specifically at the policy maker. A simple Google search reveals thousands of short form resources in the form of “How To” video tutorials, articles, listicles and snippets each dealing with a specific subset of the myriad of elements of data science. Topics such as “Preparing data with Pandas” or “How to select features and responses” or “How to determine if my chosen algorithm is performing” all invite enticing glimpses of problem solving. Rarely is the world of data science systematically unpacked, referenced and peer-reviewed specifically for the policy maker, the legislator and the government official. And yet, on the periphery of applied policy making, most officials are aware of concepts such as BD, ML and AI. These concepts need to be firstly demystified before being introduced formally in the governance domain.  

The second question is whether the data exists. Let me explain. Data about government performance is everywhere, and it is abundant.  In my case SCOPA members are inundated with data all the time.  Data sources include portfolio committee reports, the AGSA, the public service commission, the financial and fiscal commission, the SIU, internal audit reports, departmental quarterly reports, and the list goes on. Yet in the midst of all this information, I very much doubt that a dataset exists that is ready for machine learning. If anyone reading this would like to rebut my assertion, I would welcome such a development. It will save my research several months! 

The third issue is with reproducibility. If my team and I build an ML model that performs well on unseen data, we must share! It should be standard practice that not only datasets but the actual code must be made available as a standard part of the research (Data School, 2014). This is because sometimes algorithms don’t work, machine learning models experience degradation over time, or we make the wrong business decisions from the data. In such cases, we may all learn from our failures just as much as from our triumphs. 

For the policy maker, machine learning can become the tool that helps us prove or disprove our intuition about the problem we are trying to solve. Here are a few of my recommendations for disrupting corruption with a data-driven approach: 

Firstly, governments need to become data driven learning organisations. For this to happen much more research and experimentation is needed. Officials and domain experts in government department are vital to the success of the undertaking because they make those vital inferences from the data on which decisions for say, corruption busting, hinges 

Secondly, we need  to find a place for data science in the policy life cycle. Ideally more than one place. Statistical models can help policymakers move from inputs and outputs to outcomes and impacts. This would depend on the computational efficiency available and the particular problem that the machine is trying to learn on, but every stage of the policy life cycle can benefit from machine learning. 

Next is to bring together the data scientist, the statistician and the domain expert. Governance is an immensely complex undertaking. Every moment of the day, thousands upon thousands of financial transactions happen across municipal, provincial and national budget line items, often involving staggering amounts. This is all happening in an environment regulated by a myriad of complex laws and regulations. Officials often underestimate their domain knowledge and they don’t get credit for being able to assimilate all this complexity. The current consensus is that the best problem solving teams include data scientists, statisticians and domain experts (Mukherjee, 2019). All three have distinct roles to play in arriving at informed governance decisions. 

The possibilities for machine learning to tackle corruption are very exciting. But it still requires humility from the data scientist, an understanding of the theory, and a willingness from the government official to give freely of his domain knowledge. And finally, no model can ever predict with a 100% accuracy. We should be honest about that when pitching solutions to legislatures and governments alike. 

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Water an Economic Enabler in any Growing Economy 

by Nico de Jager MPL, DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Infrastructure Development and Property Management 

Gauteng is widely agreed upon to be the economic hub of South Africa and even Africa. For any economy to grow there are certain enablers and services, water, power, transport, and connectivity, that must be uninterrupted for business to grow. Without these enablers the development of that economy will be stifled. Water is one enabler that is critical to growing the economy, creating jobs that will lead to political and social stability in the country.  

Gauteng is a landlocked province and with Johannesburg being the biggest city in the world not next to a port or a big river. Because of its’ topography Gauteng is almost completely reliant on electricity (from ESKOM) even for its water supply. As an economic hub Gauteng should have an uninterrupted supply of water, yet over the past 10 years we have seen a decline in the ability to provide uninterrupted water to the province.  

With the growing demand for water used in industries and mining and potable water for household use several water companies were in operation since 1903 until the establishment of the Rand Water Board to supply raw water to the Witwatersrand area.  

Rand Water has not been able to secure meaningful upgrades to its bulk services to the province for many years. Since the late 1980’s the bulk supply has been constant while the demand far outweighs the supply; basic economics of supply and demand which can explain the disastrous situation with regards to jobs and economic growth with which we are faced.  

As the population and industries grew so did the demand for additional water resources. Major schemes were developed such as the Vaal River and Barrage scheme in 1914 and 1924, Vereeniging Purification Plants in 1924, Vaal dam in 1938, Zuikerbosch Purification Plant in 1949 and then the Lesotho Highlands Scheme (LSH) in 1998. Phase I of the LSH was completed in 1998 and since then the design and budget process of phase II of the project has not only been delayed by almost 10 years but the cost of the project ballooned with allegations maladministration and corruption.  

The unwillingness of the National Department of Water and Sanitation to issue a license to Rand Water for an additional bulk supply line to bring more water to Gauteng has led to the increase in water shortages in Gauteng over the last couple of years where demand for potable water outweighs the supply of water. Lack of increased bulk supply lines by Rand Water and failure to proactively maintain water infrastructure has left many industries paralyzed and households water insecure for days on end.  

Municipalities need to be more biased towards maintenance and refurbishment of critical municipal services.  

For too long municipalities have failed in the upgrading and maintenance of water systems and as a result we have seen an increase in technical losses and poor service delivery achievements. Infrastructure backlog on water infrastructure in Johannesburg alone is more than R22 billion rand. A concerted effort to change overall Municipal Capex spending from below 60% on economic enabling infrastructure to a 75% targeted investment is what is needed to eat away at this backlog.  

How can we turn this situation around?  

As much as the national government and Gauteng provincial government cannot interfere with the autonomy of the municipalities, national and provincial government do have a responsibility to advise, capacitate and even incentivize municipalities to achieve infrastructure objectives.  

Infrastructure development should be at the forefront of Gauteng government and the budgeting of municipalities as it is needed to grow the economy and create jobs in the province. As much as municipalities must remain autonomous in how they spend and allocate budget these municipalities should be incentivized through a grant system. When they reach set targets and objectives on infrastructure development and spending, a municipality should qualify for additional grant funding as an incentive to spend more on infrastructure refurbishment and replacement.  

In recent months we have seen the municipalities of Tshwane and Johannesburg cut services to government institutions and big corporates for non-payment of services while hiding behind all sorts of legal excuses. The reality is that the revenue from these organisations also impacts on the ability of municipalities to execute on their mandate to deliver services to all. The ability for municipalities to provide a basket of social services to indigenous people relies on the ability to collect revenue owed to the municipalities.  

Municipalities cannot afford to carry default payers or late payments; account managers in the different entities must be equipped to resolve queries timeously and collect payments where there are disputes. Now, it is also true that some municipalities in Gauteng do have outstanding accounts with Rand Water and when a municipal account runs overdue because of a dispute it must be resolved quickly to ensure Rand Water can do upgrades and maintain their infrastructure.  

Municipalities and entities must ensure that project managers on water and networks are equipped with the knowledge to do their jobs and be held accountable for executing projects on time and within budget. No municipality can afford the inflated budgets on projects that benefit the corrupt elite as we have seen over the years. It can no longer be business as usual.  

In my opening statement I spoke about the state of infrastructure across the province and the dilemma we are faced with due to underspending on infrastructure to drive economic growth, but the province is also plagued with the vandalism of infrastructure. The quickest win would be to follow on what the President had alluded to in his State of Nation Address and declare all municipal electrical and water infrastructure as national key points. This will allow water towers, water reservoirs and substations to benefit from national security provided by the state.  

In addition, national key points are exempt from loadshedding and this will also protect infrastructure unnecessarily being switched on and off. During load-shedding substations are switched off for extended periods of time causing coolant to coagulate and when it comes back on the erosion because of the lack of coolant has a devastating effect on the lifespan of infrastructure while water reservoirs and towers often run dry during load-shedding adding to the frustration of residents. No power means no water and that ultimately impacts on the ability to grow the economy.  

Across the province many municipalities still have thousands of kilometers of asbestos pipes. These pipes are fragile and far beyond their useful lifespan and as soon as there is a sudden increase in pressure after a burst or loadshedding, multiple bursts will occur. Again, this highlights the importance of maintenance and refurbishment as well as for the exemption of water infrastructure from loadshedding schedules.  

Expensive recycled water from wastewater treatment works is pumped back into rivers that could have alternative uses. Municipalities should therefore be encouraged to start work on a policy that will allow for a dual pipe system on all new township developments. All parks, golf courses and industries should be encouraged to make use of recycled water suitable for industries.  A dual pipe system will provide a line for recycled water to be pumped back to be used for toilet flushing, watering of gardens and parks, etc.  

Lastly the provincial government could set a target, say 70% of total capital investment spending for municipalities on infrastructure replacement and refurbishment. As much as the municipalities will retain their autonomy, an incentive to reach a goal will assist municipalities to achieve a more enabling environment for economic growth in the long run.  

In closing, all water entities and departments should at all times communicate the need to reuse, recycle and save water. All municipalities must prioritise the need to introduce first line of response teams that can isolate bursts and reduce technical water losses. Saving water is not only the responsibility of consumers but also lies on the side of the supplier. While we cannot make more water, we can save water and protect our environment.  

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Road accidents hinder socio-economic development while impacting on the well-being of all South Africans

By Fred Nel MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Roads and Transport 

Road accidents have become recognised internationally as a social and economic burden. Despite governmental efforts to curb the soaring number of road crashes, the annual number of road fatalities in South Africa and the cost thereof remains exceptionally high.  

While substantial resources have been invested to promote awareness amongst the public, intensify law enforcement interventions and increase the visibility of our law enforcement officers on our roads, this is yet to yield significant returns in terms of a significant reduction in the number of crashes and loss of life.  

According to Arrive Alive’s 2021 Easter Road Safety and Fatality Statistics figures, 189 crashes were recorded during the Easter weekend, resulting in 235 fatalities nationwide. KwaZulu- Natal recorded the highest number of crashes with 42 crashes and 54 fatalities. This was followed by Gauteng which had 30 crashes resulting in 36 fatalities. Most of these fatalities were because of drunk driving, unsafe overtaking, excessive speed and not adhering to the rules of the road amongst others. 

The high number of road accidents has a significant impact on South African society. This is largely because road accidents hinder socio-economic development while impacting on the well-being of all South Africans. The financial and physical impact of road traffic crashes are not just borne by the individual but by the extended family, society at large, the health sector and the economy of the country. Injuries and deaths, therefore, create a significant financial burden for individuals and families as well as for the health care system. The death of the breadwinner/main income earner, the cost of medical treatment and subsequent loss of a job and/or income resulting from a road crash often have important adverse economic and social consequences on a household. 

According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), there were 12 956 deaths on South African roads in 2020 which cost the economy a staggering R176 billion. In the same breath, deadly crashes as a result of alcohol consumption cost the country’s economy R18.2 billion in the same period.  

The Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) 2019/2020 annual report further sheds light on recent RAF payouts. According to the report, the average claim value increased by 21% in the 2019/2020 financial year, compared to the previous year while total claims received by the RAF increased by 3% to R43.2 billion. 

In the face of such alarming road accident statistics, even the South Africa Sustainable Development Goals target to halve the number of deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020 was not achieved. The country performed poorly and completely missed the target.  

The challenges in addressing road safety in South Africa are primarily those of human behaviour which includes a lack of knowledge of the rules of the road, an unwillingness to abide by these rules, inadequate enforcement and a lack of follow up of fines. This results in the current culture of impunity as seen on our roads. Repeat offenders know that they can get away with transgressions by just paying “cold drink or tjotjo money”. 

Behaviour that results in the safe use of roads is cultivated through proper education during a child’s foundation phase, reinforced through legally earned driver licenses during comprehensive testing and monitored vehicle driving experience even before earning a final license. 

There is a serious need for early and consistent education and awareness campaigns in our communities, increased visibility from our law enforcement officers and road patrols, and greater stakeholder involvement. In addition, there needs to be more roadblocks which entails checking vehicles, issuing traffic fines, and impounding un-roadworthy vehicles. 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has called for the Gauteng traffic police to be declared an essential service so that they are to provide 24-hour road safety services to the citizens of the province. There is also a need to fully deploy and make use of technology such as body cameras to improve traffic policing and fight corruption on our roads which leads to further carnage.  

Equally, motorists caught driving under the influence of alcohol and those arrested for excessive speeding should face the full might of the law. According to NPO, South Africans Against Drunk Driving, a major issue with law enforcement and ensuring that drunk drivers are dealt with is the under-testing and the conviction rate for drunk driving which is between 2% to 7%. We need to work on ensuring that testing is correctly done and then followed by swift appearances in court for efficient prosecution. For as long as people know that they can drink and drive and not have to bear the consequences, this will remain a serious problem on our roads. No one should be able to get away with placing their lives and those of other road users at risk. 

Driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to wear a seatbelt, excessive speeding, disregarding road conditions and road signs is indicative of negative conduct that contributes to fatalities on our roads. Such loss of life is both unwarranted and preventable. However, achieving reduced road crashes, injuries, and fatalities, will require collective and sustained action from all of us. 

The Democratic Alliance wishes Gauteng residents and those who will be visiting the province a safe and happy Easter holiday. We appeal to everyone to exercise caution and to be considerate on the road. Drivers are additionally urged to rest between long journeys so as not to endanger the lives of other road users. Those who disobey the rules of the road must face the full might of the law.  

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Why is the government so bad at implementing infrastructure? 

By Alan Fuchs MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Infrastructure Development 

A string of failed infrastructure projects across the country and in Gauteng have given rise to a huge backlog of infrastructure. This impacts negatively on the economy and kills any hope that citizens have of a better future. In a meeting with development financiers President Ramaphosa said that in recent years, the government has witnessed the accelerated deterioration of some of its most important assets required to improve the quality of life of citizens. 

At last year’s Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium, he said that the infrastructure backlog was so immense that it would take billions of rands and decades to fill the gap without the contribution of the private sector. During this year’s State of the Province Address (SOPA), Premier Makhura finally admitted that the poor performance of the Infrastructure Development Department in Gauteng has had a negative impact on service delivery and job creation.  

 So why is the government so bad at implementing and maintaining infrastructure?  

It should come as no surprise that one of the major contributing factors is the lack of skills and expertise in the public sector. The haemorrhaging of technical engineering and financial skills has contributed significantly to the bleak state of public infrastructure. The situation is exacerbated by ideological considerations such as BEE, employment equity and cadre deployment, which do not necessarily result in the appointment of the most skilled applicants for a position or contractors for a tender.

Any skilled professional worth their salt is naturally attracted to the private sector as working in government is associated with chaos, lack of discipline, wastage, and inefficiency. The loss of necessary skills has undermined all aspects of infrastructure implementation from planning and design to project management, asset management and maintenance. 

Then, of course, there is the vexing question of corruption. It takes many forms including fraud, or more subtle forms such as rent-seeking, abuse of power or patronage. Procurement systems enable the appointment of ‘connected’ middlemen who inflate the costs and provide kickbacks to officials and political parties.  The wilful subversion of government decision making processes gives rise to the extraction of billions of rands which land in the pockets of the manipulators. 

The emergence of so-called “business forums”, which demand participation in projects and resort to violence and project stoppages if they do not get their way, is becoming more prevalent. 

If not thwarted by robust policing and an agile criminal justice system, the dream of infrastructure development that supports the economy and job creation is pie in the sky. This criminal activity exacerbates the inability of the public sector to spend the available budgets allocated to projects.  

One cannot underestimate the impact of bureaucratic red tape and regulatory framework inefficiency on the ability of the state to implement and manage infrastructure.

The regulatory framework needs to be re-engineered because more than sixty per cent of any development process is currently spent on obtaining statutory approvals, twice as long as it takes for construction. The cost of these delays is borne by the taxpayer.

In addition, not only do public sector developments have to adhere to the same statutory approvals that private sector projects do, but public projects are further impacted by extremely slow and complicated procurement processes, decision-making and inter-governmental regulations, which results in regular under-expenditure of budgets.

A very important aspect that prevents efficient infrastructure implementation, but which is not visible to those outside of government, is the question of governance in terms of how and where decisions are made that affect infrastructure implementation.  

The institutional governance model in Gauteng has several weaknesses.  

There are numerous participants in the creation of infrastructure including the different levels of government, SOEs, government agencies and the private sector.

It is essential that their activities are coordinated by a single vision that ensures the strategic objectives of growth and spatial coherence. That is currently not the case because of a lack of coordination.  

In the case of Gauteng, this vision exists as the Gauteng Provincial Government Spatial Development Framework 2030 (GSDF 2030). This document gathers dust inside the cupboards of officials and politicians and in addition, has weaknesses such as a distinct lack of linkage between policy and implementation. Within the Gauteng government, there are several departments that implement social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals and economic infrastructure, such as roads. The scarce skills that exist are thinly spread across these departments and are diluted to the extent that the quality of output is poor.

It would make much more sense if the scarce skills in terms of planning, design, financial management as well as data analytics were centralised. The individual departments that currently implement would then be stripped of responsibility for planning and design and only be responsible for implementing the plans developed by the centralised, strategic, multi-disciplinary infrastructure entity.  Every one of the impediments mentioned above has a solution but requires skill, experience and commitment to fix them. There is doubt that the current government has the wherewithal to do so, hence the promise of an infrastructure-led economic recovery will remain a distant dream until this government is removed.