President Cyril Ramaphosa said proper maintenance was key to getting the most out of public infrastructure.
Last week, Ramaphosa attended the launch of a new phase of upgrades to the Vulindlela Bulk Water Supply Scheme in KwaZulu-Natal that, once completed, would supply approximately 350,000 residents with clean, quality water.
In his latest weekly newsletter issued on Monday, he said South Africa had a good core network of public infrastructure working to improve the lives of citizens.
However, he cited the lack of maintenance as a major stumbling block.
Ramaphosa said on the public infrastructure front, South Africa ranked in the top five countries on the continent, but that “in far too many instances it [was] not being properly maintained and upgraded”.
He said the country was seeing “accidents, disease outbreaks, and other tragedies that in a number of instances have been associated with dilapidated infrastructure” as a result.
According to National Treasury, only slightly more than half of the municipal infrastructure grant meant for upgrading and building new infrastructure, and rehabilitating existing infrastructure – was actually being spent by municipalities.
Ramaphosa expressed concern with this, saying part of the problem was that smaller municipalities, in particular, lacked implementation capacity.
However, he said, some municipalities were spending conditional grants successfully and timeously, and that this went to show that “with the necessary support, technical assistance, planning, and coordination, the problem of municipal under-spending on public infrastructure [could] be overcome”.
-EWN
In other news – Social media suspects Sizwe Dhlomo is Anele Mdoda’s baby daddy
Social media is known to have a dark sense of humour and also has zero qualms when it comes to upsetting just about anyone with the things they post online. This time, one popular Twitter user, Chris Excel, decided to share his suspicions about Anele Mdoda’s son Alakhe being her close friend Sizwe Dhlomo’s child.
His post left social media users laughing out loud as they discussed the possibility. While not many were convinced, others discussed the child’s resemblance to Sizwe. Read More
