Chair, the skills shortages in local government are evident throughout the country, particularly in the engineering field. The SA Institute of Civil Engineering, Saice, in a recent presentation stated that only 1 300 civil engineering professionals were available to serve a population of 47 million. There is thus only 2,8 civil engineering staff available per 100 000 people.
During a recent ad hoc committee oversight visit to Mpumalanga, we were informed that only three engineers were in service in municipalities to serve the entire population of the province, and this shows. Skills shortages will continue to hamper service delivery at municipal level in the absence of engineers, technologists and technicians in particular as projects will fail and huge amounts of money are wasted.
Municipalities are failing owing to limited capacity; funding; support for technical solutions; operations, maintenance and asset management; and leadership, discipline and corruption. Infrastructure projects fail mainly owing to limited capacity and control. Four percent of contractors abandon their projects as they cannot cope. One percent of contractors abandon projects as the municipality does not pay them timeously.
In the housing sector, 7% of contractors' work needed remedial work, while 18% was of a poor quality. Eleven percent had faulty designs. At the end of it all, only 51% of the work was completed satisfactorily with minor problems.
The above figures demonstrate the dire situation and wastage of funds that could have been put to better use.
The lack of maintenance in water and sanitation will continue to be one of our major challenges. We often say that water is life but, sadly, not all our communities have access to this basic need. In many instances, sewage runs down the streets and into our rivers. Pumps are broken, roads are impassable and many areas still do not have access to electricity.
Most of our municipalities suffer great losses in water, resulting in a loss of revenue to the municipality while, at the same time, causing structural damage to many of our roads. In Gauteng alone, R1,295 billion has been lost owing to leaking pipes. If we had efficient and competent engineers employed, this would not have happened. All too often the cost of their professional salaries is used as an excuse, but, if we take into consideration the figures of the losses, these amounts could rather have been used for professional fees.
In many instances, positions are politicised instead of professionalised. The time has come for all municipalities to appoint professional, registered, senior officials - with the assistance of the SA Institute of Civil Engineers - that have sound track records. Why are we not using the skills of professionals? Saice has developed job descriptions, training plans and policies that we should be looking at adopting instead of shying away from. Past experience has shown that, many a time, officials who are commissioned and tasked to do the interviewing are not qualified enough or competent enough to make the right decisions, but are rather biased through their political affiliations.
An action plan is needed urgently to avoid any further delivery problems. We should bring the professionals on board through Saice to assist municipalities by seconding young engineers, staff and apprentices under their professional watch. They could be responsible for assessing backlogs, come up with plans on how to refurbish and rehabilitate ailing infrastructure and put in place a maintenance plan that could be beneficial to the particular municipality.
This should also be linked to education and training. Tertiary institutions should consider offering courses that are geared towards local government, such as national diplomas in municipal engineering. There could also be courses offered in operations and maintenance as well as asset management.
We could also engage with the private sector and request them to assist with experienced professional staff in order to be effective, people who could assist in turning around the shortcomings that we are currently experiencing. There are solutions to the problem. What we need is commitment, commitment and commitment. Thank you. [Applause.]