Speaker and hon members, I have two copies of the speeches and I don't know if I have the right to read from both of them. [Laughter.]
Speaker, on a point of order: I hope that the hon Sogoni would recognise the fact that there are three items on the Order Paper that he is referring to.
What is your point of order, hon member?
Maybe if he had six speeches it would be better than just the three. Or two, I beg your pardon - or one! [Laughter.]
Continue from where you left off, hon member. Don't start at the beginning. [Laughter.]
Thank you, Speaker. The reports of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, as you indicated, refer to the study visits that the standing committee made to Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The visits to Limpopo, and to the Nandoni, De Hoop and Inyaka Dams in Mpumalanga were prompted by the persistent stand of the department on these infrastructure projects.
The first stop that we made was at Nandoni. We were informed that Nandoni is a water treatment plant which was built to serve over 750 000 households and those households would benefit from the water in that dam. However, the water treatment plant experienced challenges as there was a problem with the water reticulation pipes that were delivered by the manufacturer.
The pipes were not according to the specifications of the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. That raised problems between the department and the manufacturer, as the manufacturer would not accept responsibility for the incorrect pipe size. As we speak, the matter is now before the courts. However, the department is now laying new pipes alongside those old ones until the matter is resolved in court.
Our next stop was the De Hoop Dam. This is a huge project by any standard. The dam is in Sekhukhuneland. We found that most of the communities around the dam do not have access to water - or the mines.
This project was supposed to be a private-public partnership project in which the mines would contribute 50% of the costs. However, the delay is caused by the fact that as a result of the 2008 recession, the mines, which had undertaken to contribute, then reneged on the agreement.
This means that government is left to fill the gap. This has caused a shortfall of R800 million, which has to come from National Treasury. That has caused a delay and it means that the communities around the De Hoop Dam will not be able to access the water until 2013. We are requesting that Treasury engages with the mines so that they can also come to the party.
The last stop was at the Inyaka Dam in Bushbuckridge. The challenge with the Inyaka Dam is that, firstly, the communities around the dam do not have access to the water pumped from the dam and, secondly, the Bushbuckridge Water Board, which is supposed to be the water authority there, appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts yesterday.
It reported that it is technically insolvent because the local municipality of Bushbuckridge is not able to pay its debts. So, again, there is a problem in that the Bushbuckridge Water Board is not able to supply the water because the municipality does not have the necessary funds to pay the water debt.
Someone must intervene. The Premier of Mpumalanga is trying to co-ordinate the structures but, as a committee, we think that the Department of the National Treasury and the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs must assume the co-ordination and do the right thing.
The Constitution recognises the provision of water as a human right, so the state has a duty to ensure that the people of Bushbuckridge have access to water.
The other visit was to the Eastern Cape because the department had discontinued the grants for electricity, water and sanitation there. The Standing Committee on Appropriations felt that it should visit the Eastern Cape in order to investigate for itself if there was no longer a need for the grants.
The committee was shocked to find the backlogs that still existed there. The few schools and clinics that we visited did not have water or sanitation. Those clinics and schools that had electricity were using solar panels and there was no provision for the maintenance of the solar panels.
The report was that those solar panels lay there, unmaintained, for months. Those clinics sometimes operate as hospitals because they have labour wards. This is a danger to the people of the Eastern Cape who use these clinics.
The last visit was to KwaZulu-Natal. It was related to the Expanded Public Works Programme. The committee went to KwaZulu-Natal in order to look for best practice in terms of expenditure of the EPWP project. This is a flagship project of government to create job opportunities. However, there is underspending, and hugely so.
We invited all the provinces and found that the reason why KwaZulu-Natal was spending at a better rate than any other province is that the issue of job creation in KwaZulu-Natal is a standing item in the executive committee. We urged the other provinces to do likewise. On that note, Speaker, I would like to thank you. [Applause.]
Thank you, hon chair of the committee, hon Sogoni, for that report.
Hon Speaker, I move:
That the reports be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report of Standing Committee on Appropriations on Oversight Visit to Limpopo on 14-18 March 2010 accordingly adopted.
Report of Standing Committee on Appropriations on Oversight Visit to Eastern Cape on 2-6 August 2010 accordingly adopted.
Report of Standing Committee on Appropriations on Oversight Visit to KwaZulu-Natal on 19-23 July 2010 accordingly adopted.