Chairperson, the PAC wishes to acknowledge the challenging task done by the Minister of Finance, the Treasury and the portfolio committee in drafting the Bill before us. We hope the three spheres of government, as beneficiaries, will prudently utilise their budget to address the issue of poor service delivery and other related matters.
The PAC wishes to advise the Minister to exercise a firm hand and an iron fist in the monitoring of the fiscals to prevent underspending and roll- overs by provinces, municipalities and some national departments. Our people must not languish in poverty, disease, and suffer due to poor service delivery owing to inefficiency of provinces, municipalities and some national departments. The target set to eradicate the bucket system, the supply of water and electricity to all must be realised. This may only be achieved if proper monitoring and control mechanisms are put in place. Our people were promised free basic services, and that must not be compromised by incapable and inefficient provinces, councillors and national departments.
The PAC, further, could not understand why Mangaung local municipality is deprived of the status of a Metro. It is 13 years into our fledging democracy, and one of the most significant cities of our country is still struggling to become a Metro due to unnecessary bureaucracy. A political decision must be taken for this to happen as early as possible.
The PAC wishes to draw your attention to the most poor and disadvantaged rural areas such as the Greater Sekhukhune in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape when the revenue is shared. These provinces are at the receiving end when it comes to issues related to provision of infrastructure of all sorts, water, electricity, housing and sanitation.
The provinces without world-ranking stadiums must be attended to in the future, as they are to lose a lot of revenue when projects such as the 2010 Fifa World Cup are staged in our country. The PAC supports the Bill.