Chairperson, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, the DA is in support of the idea to rejuvenate and reshape the department and to develop a skills operation that focuses on core functions. However, all these good ideas mean nothing unless they are implemented properly and speedily.
Again, Minister, the road ahead will not be easy if one considers the following issues: Administratively, your department is headless and will be headless until you fill all the posts; the mud-slinging in the leadership, politically and administratively, does not do any favour to the department; the budget does not cover all the vacancy rates in your department, including the Occupation Specific Dispensation, OSD; very little if nothing is allocated for skills development; and lack of capacity in your department remains a concern. Chairperson, unless the above issues are addressed, the Minister's good idea will remain but a pipedream. Another issue that demotivates the department's employees is that the contract employees are earning higher salaries than the permanent staff. This is something that the department must attend to as soon as possible.
Last year, Chairperson, I mentioned that the Marievale Military Base, a government-owned property, was in a state of disrepair. And until today nothing has been done there and the situation is getting worse.
The problem with Marievale is that there are communities who are staying there, and they've been renting the houses from the Department of Defence. There is absolutely no service delivery there. The municipality is unable to help because their area belongs to the national government. The community members are always stranded whenever they encounter problems because they don't know whom to report to.
The rampant looting that has plagued the area is continuing. Rented houses are falling apart because no one is repairing them. Cable boxes are left open, exposing children to danger. Without adequate drainage the roads run like swimming pools and all over the place the grass grows high. Nothing is happening there except the development of a golf course. How this will benefit the local community is unclear. Minister, I urge you to give due consideration to the situation at Marievale and to implement the suggestion I made to you last year.
Another military base that is not utilised is the Mariepskop Radar station in Mpumalanga, and very soon it will also be looted. It is one of the most beautiful places in our country. Standing on top of the mountain you can see forever. The sad part of this is that very few people know about it. It has more than 20 three-bedroom houses, three blocks of multi-storey flats, a dining hall, fully equipped kitchen with walk-in fridges, three different pubs, medical stations, swimming pool, rugby field, tennis courts and many other facilities left to the jungle.
The government has, since 1990, been wasting a lot of money by paying the personnel to look after the property. Here is a wonderful opportunity, Minister, for the private sector to open this village as a holiday resort that will offer much more than any other resort in the area. It will also provide lots of job opportunities in an area where the thought of a job is seen as a silly dream, not to mention the great income it can generate.
The DA supports the creation of job opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP. However, it is not enough to measure only the number of jobs opportunities created; we should go beyond this. It must not be about job creation just for the sake of meeting targets; there must be value for money spent from the public coffers. The department must start to measure the quality of the work done and customer satisfaction. The project must leave some legacy behind, like the road built at Ngcinginikhwe in the Eastern Cape, that's a good example. The community must feel proud of the work done by the EPWP in their area.
The skills transfer from the Extended Public Works Programme, EPWP, must be real and genuine. They should be approved by the SA Qualification Authority. If this is not the case, then we are wasting these young people time. It is also not true that we can train 500 people at a time and that, after completion, they go home just to rust again. Let us be realistic and train a reasonable number that will be absorbed into full employment either by government or the private sector.
Omunye weminqopho ye-EPWP kurarha indlala - umtlhago. Kodwana, Ngqongqotjhe, ukuthi ngubani ekufuze aqatjhwe nokuthi kuqatjhwe bunjani, lokhu kusese yindaba engalethi ubuthongo. Amathuba wemisebenzi asanikelwa labo abazanako nanyana abaneenhlobo. Abantu abatlhaga khulu nanje abawatholi lamaphrojekthi. UmNyango kufanele wendlale imihlahlandlela nemithetho ngokuqatjhwa ku-EPWP begodu uqinisekise bonyana abomasipala neemfunda bayayilandela leyo mithetho. Ukuze kurarhwe indlala, umtlhago kufuze kube, okungasenani, umuntu munye osebenzako emndenini ngamunye. Nangabe ubaba nomma abasebenzi, kufanele baqalelelwe kokuthoma. Labo babantu abazokuqinesekisa bonyana kubanokudla ekhaya - kurarhwe umtlhago. (Translation of isiNdebele paragraphs follows.)
[One of the objectives of the EPWP is to alleviate poverty, but the challenge, Minister, is who should be employed and how. This is still the challenge that brings sleepless nights. Job opportunities are still given to pals and relatives. People who are really suffering do not get these projects. The department should introduce guidelines with regard to the employment of people in the EPWP and ensure that municipalities and provinces adhere to those guidelines.
To alleviate poverty, at least one member of each family should be employed; especially, in cases were both parents are not working. They should be first in line to get these jobs. These are people who will make sure that there is food at home so their families do not go hungry.]
Chairperson, corruption must be dealt with equally amongst all employees, from a general worker up to senior level. Many public sector employees seem to be getting away with it.
Minister, I am saying this because the former director-general of your department appointed Servcon and Intersite to do an asset register on behalf of the department without following the tender procedure in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA. This is a serious offence. Until now nothing has been done to bring him to book, but junior officials are being disciplined, arrested and charged for minor offences and not senior officials.
At present we are told that the companies are demanding R200 million for a job they dismally failed to carry out. But strangely enough, in 2009 Intersite appointed another company to do their asset register. Why can't they do their own asset register if they are qualified to do that? I hope the Minister is going to treat this very seriously and ensure that the law takes its course.
Minister, after a few interactions with some of the institutions under your department, one wonders why some are existing and why they are under your department. One institution that I am not going to dwell on so much is Agrment South Africa - even the Minister is not too sure why this doesn't fall under the Department of Public Works.
All contractors must be registered with the Construction Industry Development Board, CIDB, in order to do business with government, but this is not the case. It depends on who you are and whom you are connected with. The law-abiding emerging contractors are kept on Grade 1 and 2 as long as their financial status are low. They will remain there, and probably most of them will die there. If contractors like SGL Engineering can get R140 million from government tenders in two years' time without being registered with the CIDB and no actions are taken against them, then what is the use of registering with the CIDB? It is just a waste of time; it is either we give this institution some teeth to bite or we do away with it.
Kwamaswaphela, [Lastly,] the Council for the Built Environment is mandated to oversee the professional council. Minister, I don't understand why a council is overseeing another council. These are professional councils and they can stand on their own and report to the Minister without another council doing this on their behalf. This is just duplication and a fruitless expenditure.
All these institutions have board members that are paid by government for attending board meetings. The biggest question is: What are they discussing in every meeting? Does whatever they decide on change the lives of the ordinary citizens of this country? I doubt it, Minister.
Former President Thabo Mbeki once said that it cannot be business as usual, and President Jacob Zuma keeps on saying that we are doing things differently. It is time that we also consider the mandates of this institution and do things differently. Ngiyathokoza. [Iwahlo.] [Thank you. [Applause.]]