(Budget vote debate in Parliament: Public Works and Infrastructure)
When it comes to sweet talking and making extravagant promises, there are very few other governments in the world that can hold a candle to the ANC. Sadly, it fails just as extravagantly when it comes to delivering on these promises.
Look, for example, at what the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure promises in its vision for service delivery: “A trusted choice for innovative asset management and quality infrastructure delivery for sustained economic growth.”
And in its mission: “To provide strategic direction and quality services that offer innovative and proactive socio-economic infrastructure delivery and maintenance of public assets while protecting the environment and the cultural and historic heritage, safety in the working environment and safer communities towards sustainable development.”
No less than eight laws govern the mandates for this, while the Department's own values include, among other things, professionalism, good service delivery, integrity, dependability and efficiency.
Reality, however, paints a very different picture of the Department, which could at best be summarised in just two words: Corrupt and incompetent.
Year after year, the FF Plus points out that promises mean nothing without accountability.
As long as a blind eye is turned to the corruption and shameless protection of cadres – as is evident with the Beitbridge border fence scandal – South Africa will keep sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of despair.
No project nor plan can be executed successfully under such circumstances, no matter how good the intentions may be.
Since 2019, the government has given up on infrastructure development. President Cyril Ramaphosa frequently boasted of conferences where supposed investors reportedly promised billions of rand.
These billions realised just as much as the Department's promises of service delivery. In this regard the FF Plus can only say: No promise has ever been equal to a cent in the bank.
And in the meantime, infrastructure is collapsing. Roads are becoming more and more dangerous by the day, and assets, like buildings, are not being maintained.
The burnt-out shell of the country's once proud Houses of Parliament serves as an example of the ANC's dubious performance in this regard.
While everything is clearly on a slippery slope of decay, the Minister, Patricia de Lille, suffers from grandiose illusions, like her plan to pave all the gravel roads in the country. There is also a plan to build 96 new bridges across all nine provinces.
How far these plans will progress remains to be seen.
That is what is being planned while basic infrastructure, like roads, buildings, schools, hospitals, clinics, courts and police stations, are not getting the attention they need.
The Department and government's golden plan for infrastructure in South Africa just cannot seem to get off the ground. Whether the 2022/23 budget of R8,55 billion will change any of this is doubtful.
South Africa and its people deserve better than the ANC.
