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The Star<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu<\/p>\n
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Durban – Frustrated government departments have been forced to set up their own \u201cmini-public works departments\u201d to implement infrastructure projects because the Department of Public Works is in a near-dysfunctional state. <\/p>\n
Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin made this assessment on Wednesday during a parliamentary briefing on his department\u2019s Eastern Cape school building programme. He said the department did not have capacity to manage the construction of schools, one of its key mandates. <\/p>\n
Cronin told the public works oversight committee that the tendency of mini-departments of public works cropping up in various line departments like basic education could make the entire system \u201cdysfunctional\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said the department\u2019s biggest weakness was the construction of public infrastructure like clinics and schools. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is probably the area where we are most challenged and, as a result of that, what we\u2019ve found is numbers of line departments have been inclined to try and set up mini-DPWs, and basic education might be one example of that,\u201d said Cronin. <\/p>\n
He said this was done \u201cunderstandably out of frustration\u201d with the performance of the Public Works Department, \u201cbecause we\u2019re unable to assist it with building or maintaining and taking responsibility for programme management in construction of schools\u201d. <\/p>\n
The committee chairwoman, Manana Catherine Mabuza, started the meeting by asking members what the department was doing to \u201creclaim its mandate\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a very important question\u2026 There\u2019s no founding legislation which establishes the department and indicates what its mandate and reach in scope should be. So that\u2019s something we\u2019re working on,\u201d said Cronin. <\/p>\n
The deputy minister said one of the department\u2019s functions was to regulate and manage property and public buildings. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe second leg of our mandate is still not properly legislated for, but our mandate would obviously be the property management of public buildings,\u201d said Cronin. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He said attempts by the department to reclaim its responsibility should not be viewed as hostile and a competition between departments, \u201cbut needs a cabinet-wide discussion on how best we address this core function\u201d. <\/p>\n
Before Cronin\u2019s remarks, his department\u2019s deputy director-general for projects, Mfezeko Gwazube, briefed the committee on the Eastern Cape school building programme. <\/p>\n
Gwazube said there was an agreement between Public Works and Basic Education in which they identified 64 schools for upgrade in the province. <\/p>\n
Nationally, the Department of Public Works has identified 900 schools that were to be \u201cbeautified\u201d across all nine provinces. <\/p>\n
But the department also owes municipalities across the country close to R240m in outstanding rates and taxes. <\/p>\n
The department previously admitted that the Nkandla scandal also highlighted major weaknesses, maladministration and corruption in its supply chain processes. <\/p>\n
Political Bureau<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Star Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu Durban – Frustrated government departments have been forced to set up their own \u201cmini-public works departments\u201d to implement infrastructure projects because the Department of Public Works is in a near-dysfunctional state. Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin made this assessment on Wednesday during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-21421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}