You may have missed it, but Gauteng had a new premier last week. Before you get too excited, it’s not a regular thing; agriculture and rural development MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa was simply keeping Panyaza Lesufi’s seat warm while he was on “government business” in Germany.
The beleaguered taxpayer, it seems, has stumped up for a trip – one that no doubt included an entourage of toadying acolytes – for Lesufi to visit a trade fair on rail technology. Which is nice, given the degradation that plagues the country’s railways. But he must surely have been captivated by the allure of a highway with real painted lines (and sans potholes). A stable electricity grid. Streets that don’t explode. Bratwurst and apfelstrudel.
Sadly, it seems he wasn’t there for a lesson in community infrastructure development, because the Gauteng government is about as effective at overseeing new builds as the indefatigable advocate Dali Mpofu is in court. Like Mpofu, it’s also costing the taxpayer an arm and a leg.
Consider the provincial government’s recent presentations to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), and the parliamentarians’ site visits to development projects in the province. These formed part of the NCOP’s “provincial week programme”, snappily titled: “Confronting the Challenges Facing the Timely Delivery of Viable Public Infrastructure to Communities”. Also known in Gauteng as “Waiting for Godot”.
According to Lesufi’s report to the house, 45 infrastructure projects are incomplete or delayed. These are unfinished schools, hospitals and clinics; and they mostly affect the provincial departments of education, health and social services, along with sports and roads. You know, departments that perform vital, sometimes lifesaving community services.
A report by the finance department suggests these 45 projects require R645m to finish. Lesufi in his presentation put the shortfall for identified short-stopped developments at R1.1bn. The department of infrastructure development reckons there are 58 distressed projects needing R1.3bn to complete. So an entirely unsurprising lack of communication between departments then.
A closer look at the finance presentation reveals the failure in its gory detail. There’s the R588m, state-of-the-art New Joburg Forensic Pathology Services – a 36-month contract that should have been wrapped up by November 2019. As of July, 93 months had lapsed since construction began. The R200m Randfontein Community Health Centre was supposed to be a 25-month contract; by July, it was 69 months since building started. At the Bekkersdal Social Integrated Facility it was also 69 months and counting since ground was broken. This, on a project that was supposed to take 12 months.
Now, sure, the government has terminated contracts where service providers have proved unable to deliver. But projects have also stalled due to a lack of occupancy certificates, nonapproval of building plans, zoning issues, bulk services and the like. The government seems to have abandoned a number of these projects to the elements and vandals.
Mismanagement as sport
There’s the R11bn Montrose Mega Project – supposed to be a mixed-use development of schools, clinics, churches, commercial developments, urban agriculture and thousands of residential units. It’s long abandoned; by April, the grounds were overgrown, and buildings stripped of electrical cables, solar geysers, doors and window frames, according to News24. This after the developer claimed he’d run out of money as a result of the construction mafia demanding a 30% stake in the project.
In the ultimate capitulation to failure, the provincial housing department reportedly handed over incomplete houses to military veterans in October last year.
Finance MEC Lebogang Maile insists no money has been “squandered”, according to that News24 report. But it’s hard to see how not; rehabilitating the structure will surely cost a pretty penny.
The story of the abandoned Rust-Ter-Vaal Secondary School in Vereeniging is no better. It’s no vanity project. The old school is grossly oversubscribed; as of August 2022 more than 1,000 learners were still crammed into – wait for it – asbestos buildings. And yet, two years on – and now seven years since residents were promised a new building – the new school is yet to be completed. A new contractor is apparently only to be appointed by month-end.
Kopanong Hospital is no better. It was a R115m project for emergency Covid wards set to be completed in August 2022. After the contractor abandoned the project, DA Emfuleni councillor Daddy Mollo checked it out in March 2022: grass growing inside unfinished buildings, collapsed ceilings, floors in need of repair, no security on site. Again, the department of infrastructure and development protests that the government only paid for work that was completed. So no harm, no foul.
Lesufi, in a moment of inspired clarity, has recognised that the government needs better project readiness and stricter adherence to delivery timelines; “enhanced project management, improved contractor accountability and interdependent co-ordination to prevent further financial waste and ensure timely infrastructure delivery”. A novel revelation indeed.
There is a turnaround plan – focused on a bulk infrastructure unit, the centralisation of the Gauteng Infrastructure Finance Agency in the (seemingly inept) infrastructure department and the escalation of construction mafia cases to yet another task team. And “leveraging smart technologies and digital tools”. Of course. Like Cyril’s smart cities of yore.
Properly built and maintained infrastructure is the backbone of any well-functioning economy and society, as are working schools and health-care facilities. And that takes proper project planning and management, and holding errant contractors to account.
It should be astounding that it’s taken the government this long to realise it needs a plan to ensure accountability in the delivery of infrastructure projects. Only, it’s not – it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the authorities. Big on talk, small on action, and an inability to get even the basics right.
Top image: Animation. Currency.