By OBAKENG MAJE 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in North West said the provincial government budget speech that was delivered by the North West MEC for Finance, Motlalepula Rosho, was loaded with empty promises and certain failures. 

This comes after Rosho tabled the budget amounting to R53,7 billion for the 2024/25 financial year last week.

The DA caucus leader in the North West Provincial Legislature (NWPL), Freddy Sonakile said, the provincial government makes big promises it cannot deliver. According to Sonakile, the bulk of the provincial budget is earmarked for the public sector wage bill. 

“In short, 63% of the budget goes to compensation of employees, leaving a mere 37% to fund service delivery and infrastructure maintenance and development. In addition, the ANC-led provincial government is in the process of borrowing R2 billion through ‘frontloading’, thus using future housing grants as collateral. 

“We are concerned about the impact this loan would have on the next government’s ability to fund and deliver public services in an already constrained environment. An additional R70 million is allocated to Public Works and Roads for resealing and pothole patching of our roads,” he said. 

Sonakile further said this includes the promise of re-establishing Asphalt Material factories in all four municipal districts. He added that, however, no mention was made about the state of these factories established previously.

“The ANC in government is notorious for launching projects, but then failing to extend the necessary support to ensure long-term viability, through which millions of rands are funnelled. All the bakeries initiated by the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT), as well as the bricklaying plants have closed shop leaving no return on investments, resulting in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“An investment of R6,98 billion was poured into roads and infrastructure over the last 5 years, yet the general state of provincial roads and public infrastructure is of decay and dilapidation. All we got for almost R7 billion was more potholes,” said Sonakile.

He said interestingly, Rosho announced yet another financial rescue plan, now called the Financial Recovery Plan (FRP). Sonakile said, despite all the attempts over the past 5 years through the Section 100 interventions, task teams, financial recovery plans, the financial state of the provincial government remains dire. 

“There are still no clean audits in the North West, while every single municipality has practically collapsed and continues to fail residents by not supplying basic services such as clean water and electricity.

“Budgetary pressure is not an excuse for poor service delivery. Budgetary pressures have existed since the start of this government’s term, and quite frankly, the ANC in government caused these pressures themselves through fraud, corruption, malfeasance, coupled with their destructive economic policies,” he said.

Sonakile said Rosho has allocated R450 million towards scholar transport. He said they reiterate their concerns about the manner scholar transport is managed in this province. 

“Especially considering the damning findings by the SIU last year against the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management for irregularly awarding scholar transport contracts. The department awarded several new contracts late last year, and we have already received several complaints about the poor state of this service from learners, parents and teachers,” said Sonakile. 

Meanwhile, Rosho said: “Government has made positive strides, particularly in the past five years, to ensure that services reach all corners of the province. The 6^th administration strove to make the most of limited resources, supporting economic growth, core services, and social welfare.

“In 2019, the 6^th administration made a commitment to the people of this province that it will continue to deliver services better, faster and smarter in order to build a performance-oriented state. Guided by these imperatives, the government has implemented a range of initiatives that responded to the eradication of the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.”  

Rosho said since 2019, there has been a somewhat improvement in audit outcomes and that the project to improve the number of departments achieving clean audits is gradually gaining momentum. She said the province has registered significant progress in relation to the delivery of social and economic infrastructure. 

“An investment of R6,98 billion in roads infrastructure was made over the last 5 years, whilst investment towards health care facilities for the past five years amounts to R3.51 billion. 

“The province invested R4.44 billion in building new schools over the last five years and has delivered 22 075 housing units and 27 930 service stands to people at a total investment of R4.473 billion for the past five years. Despite the hardships, the outgoing administration emerged victorious and reaffirmed that the government is committed to continue with its efforts of creating a better life for all.

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