The FF Plus demanded this morning, during a session of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure, to inspect the Department’s maintenance programme for government buildings.
The FF Plus pointed out that performing proper maintenance on government buildings has been put off for long enough, and that the maintenance programme must be submitted to the Portfolio Committee so that it can determine what the programme entails and why maintenance work is not being done.
The FF Plus also insisted that comprehensive information on the Minister’s “Operation Bring Back” must be provided to the Committee.
Minister Sihle Zikalala announced earlier this week that the programme’s objective is to recover buildings that were stolen or unlawfully transferred and occupied.
The FF Plus is of the opinion that the Minister failed to disclose enough information on the plan during yesterday and today’s meetings, and that the Committee is, therefore, still in the dark about what the programme entails and how it will be implemented.
The only information that the Minister provided to the Committee during yesterday’s meeting is that a process to recover approximately 1 260 of the 29 000 buildings reflected in the Department’s asset register which are currently occupied will soon get underway.
The FF Plus requested to have access to all the programme’s details.
The FF Plus also insisted that the Department must present its asset register to the Committee so that it can determine whether the register is up to date and whether the Department knows where all its land and buildings are located.
The chaos surrounding government buildings is nothing new. Government has been dragging its feet with maintaining and upgrading its buildings, which has brought about this problem.
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