Government is to spend more than R9 billion over the next three years on infrastructure as part of fast-tracking service delivery to communities. Deputy President Paul Mashatile revealed this in Parliament when he answered questions in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
He was grilled on various issues of national interest related to the work of the government.
Some delegates in the NCOP emphasise the critical need for the delivery of services to the people. The issue of funding is one of the concerns raised.
However, the Deputy President responded, saying that the government is looking at this matter.
“Government will spend more than nine hundred and forty billion rand on infrastructure over the next three years, including R375 billion in spending by state-owned companies or enterprises themselves. Transnet has developed a five-year capital investment that focuses on infrastructure rehabilitation, capacity expansion, and freight logistics modernisation. Transnet will further invest R127.7 billion on rail, port, and pipeline infrastructure over the next five years to increase network efficiency.”
He says most of this work will be funded through State-Owned Entities.
“We have enough plans. We must now focus on implementation. So the issues that I am talking about now, about Eskom, transnet. I am talking about things that are already in the pipeline. A lot of these processes to ensure public sector participation will be rolling out in the course of this year. And I am sure most of them will be concluded this year to ensure that we see implementation.”
Video: Deputy President Paul Mashatile answers oral questions in the National Council of Provinces
The Deputy President reiterates that the Expropriation Act is the right decision to address land reform.
“The expropriation act itself is going to help us to fast-track the issue of land reform. I know that when the President signed this Act into law, there were those who were saying … or now we want to grab land from white farmers and other people who had land before. What we are doing with that Expropriation Act is really to ensure redress, to ensure that those who were previously denied or the land was taken away from them do have access to land.”
He hints at a possible merger of the cash-strapped Post Bank with another state-owned entity.
“There are state-owned enterprises that may be merged with others to ensure efficiency. But before we can say it’s a dead horse that must be put down, we just need to go through those reports properly and look at what the challenges are. Particularly, because Honourable van de Burg, you will know that in rural areas one of the institutions that really reaches the rural areas is the Post Office.”
Mashatile assures the NCOP that the government is confident about eradicating the water shortage challenges in the country. “We are going to be able to deal with these problems decisively. In fact, when the President spoke this morning at the Water Summit, he indicated to the delegates that we are going to put strict time frames on all this work. So we are not going just to say Oh yes, we got good plans to deal with the challenges of water. We are going to put strict timeframes to ensure that all these time frames are implemented by particular dates so that we can hold people accountable.”
