16 July 2024
Building water infrastructure to meet the goals of our National Development Plan for 2030 and making guarantee that future generations have access to clean water.
Honourable Chairperson, we have just six years remaining to reach 2030, the year we committed to realising our national development plan vision. While we have made significant progress in achieving universal access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation, we still need to do much more to achieve the objectives of the national development plan.
According to the recent census report for 2022, our democratic government has managed to expand access to water to more than 89% of the population, and 84% have access to decent sanitation services. Recently, Deputy Minister Mahlobo has emphasised that, as much as we have made this significant achievement, we also need to recognise that some communities have 100% access to services while others have zero access to the same services. In short, as this august house, we have a responsibility to extend water and sanitation services to those communities that have not yet received the benefits of our freedom: clean drinking water and decent sanitation.
• Encourage proper budgeting, planning, and prompt implementation and completion of water infrastructure projects.
Honourable Members, billions of rands are allocated through various grant mechanisms to expand access to water and sanitation infrastructure to promote the social and economic development of our communities. However, some of our communities, especially those in rural areas and informal settlements, are still without access to their basic rights to clean drinking water and decent sanitation.
Poor planning, budgeting, and untimely execution have caused delays in the implementation of some major water and sanitation projects denying our people their right to access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation.. This has resulted in increased costs for our democratic government, as either government officials failed to properly budget for these projects or simply neglected their fiduciary duties. As this august house, we need to encourage proper budgeting and planning, as well as prompt implementation and completion of water infrastructure projects.
We must instruct government officials to always adhere to the principle of getting the best value for money. Investigating the root causes of project delays and rising costs is crucial, and we should not hesitate to enforce consequence management when officials fail to fulfil their fiduciary duties.
• Integrated planning, national and water authorities, including reticulation
Honourable Members, we need to ensure that we move away from the silo mentality, where sector departments implement their programmes alone or where the national department does not talk to the provincial or local government even though they are targeting the same constituency.
President Ramaphosa has called upon the government to use the District Development Model, which guarantees that integrated planning, budgeting, and execution of major projects can result in improved service delivery, especially the reticulation of water to communities.
• Promoting public-private partnerships to facilitate skill transfer and address skills gaps in the public sector
Honourable Members, we have over the years seen the public sector losing critical skills personnel due to a competitive labour market, with the private sector taking up the majority of this cohort of people while some migrate to oversee. The private sector’s higher salaries and benefits contribute to the public sector’s loss of this cohort, thereby impeding our democratic government’s capacity to deliver high-quality basic services.
It therefore becomes important for our government to promote public-private partnerships to facilitate skill transfer and address skills gaps in the public sector. In other sectors, such as health, the democratic government has already established public-private partnerships. It has constructed health facilities that both the public and private sectors use jointly, and private doctors provide consultation sessions for the public. This can be replicated in the water and sanitation sectors, but with a focus on transferring skills to public sector workers who are already in the field to build the capacity and capabilities to lead the service delivery component.
• Attracting funding for water infrastructure development
We need to broaden the scope of this public-private partnership to finance the development of water infrastructure in the country, rather than restricting it solely to the transfer of skills to bridge the skills gap. However, we must first take decisive action against poor governance and financial mismanagement in order to move towards clean governance and financially sustainable government.
Honourable Members, nationally, we have seen the strides of the ministry and the department not only in eradicating under expenditure on its allocated budget but also in reducing and preventing improper expenditure, that is, unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure. These actions by the ministry and department will attract funding for the various planned water infrastructure projects that our government needs to implement if we are to achieve the 2030 national development plan objectives.
As the African National Congress, we firmly believe that our democratic government needs to establish strategic public-private partnerships with financial institutions to close the investment gap in water and sanitation infrastructure.
• Fast-track the establishment of the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency to mobilise funding for big water infrastructure projects.
Honourable Chairperson, we expect President Ramaphosa to sign into law the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency after both houses—the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces—approved it just before the end of the 6th parliamentary term.
The African National Congress applauds Minister Majodina’s pledge to complete the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency’s establishment by May 2025. By fast-tracking the agency’s establishment, our democratic government will be better able to mobilize funding for the major water and sanitation infrastructure needed to achieve the 2030 national development plan objectives.
Minister Majodina succinctly summarizes part of the reason we are urging the department to expedite the establishment: the agency “will own all the national water resource infrastructure assets and obtain the revenue streams associated with those assets. This will enable the agency to borrow additional funds based on the strength of its balance sheet.” In short, the agency will have the ability to attract and mobilise funding for major water and sanitation infrastructure projects, which our democratic government is not in a position to fund through the national budget.
• The government aims to empower historically disadvantaged communities through public procurement expenditures.
Our democratic government has designed the public procurement system in such a way that it benefits the historically disadvantaged community, black people in general, and Africans in particular, in the form of a broad-based black economic empowerment scheme. The Department of Water and Sanitation prioritizes public procurement, aiming to empower women, youth, and individuals with disabilities.
As the African National Congress, we welcome the announcement by the department that in this financial year it has put plans in place to “improve its procurement by implementing an infrastructure procurement strategy” that sets out “clear guidelines on the empowerment of women, youth, and persons with disabilities.”
In the previous financial years, the department had set targets of 40%, 30%, and 7% for women, youth, and people living with disabilities, respectively. We commend the decision by the department to revise the targeted procurement spending, as it now stands at 80%, 60%, and 14% for women, youth, and people living with disabilities. This is a clear testament to the democratic government’s commitment to radically transform our society and the water sector.
• The water infrastructure projects contribute towards the eradication of inequality, poverty, and unemployment in our communities.
While we applaud the decision to allocate more procurement spending to women, youth, and people with disabilities, we also commend the department for ensuring job creation through the implementation of various water and sanitation infrastructure projects across the country.
Honourable Members, eradicating inequality, poverty, and unemployment is at the apex of our democratic government. As the Department of Water and Sanitation rolls out massive infrastructure projects across the country, it has committed to at least make its own contribution towards job creation, and for this financial year alone, it expects to create more than 1000 job opportunities for South Africans.
It is important to note that most of the water and sanitation infrastructure projects are not once-off projects but multiyear projects, which means that our people stay longer where they are working, reducing poverty and inequality at the same time.
As the African National Congress, we want to see full employment for local communities, especially in operating, repairing, and maintaining this important water and sanitation infrastructure.
• Water rights and private dam monitoring
Honourable Members, our government continues to make strides towards universalizing access, as demonstrated by massive water and sanitation infrastructure. The department also needs to have an aggressive programme to expand access to water rights through the allocation of water user licenses to historically disadvantaged communities while also ensuring the monitoring of existing water use license holders.
As the African National Congress, we are convinced that the various programmes and projects that the department of water and sanitation is implementing in this financial year contribute towards meeting the goals of our National Development Plan while also guaranteeing access to clean drinking water for future generations.
The African National Congress fully supports the departmental budget vote as presented by the honourable Minister Pemmy Majodina.
I thank you.