Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe
The troubled North West provincial government failed to utilise more than R1 billion in the 2021/22 financial year.
The failure to use the money comes amid worsening levels of service delivery in the rural province.
It is still not clear why the national government does not see a need to place the province into administration.
To rub salt into the wound, all 23 North West municipalities have proven to be a failure for more than three decades where the people have been subjected to decay and disgrace.
Of the R1 billion, about R600 million was returned back to the provincial government’s purse as a rollover while more than R400m was returned to the national Treasury because it could not be spent.
This R1 billion was part of conditional grant funding aimed at improving roads, school nutritional programmes, etc but those who were supposed to make sure that the money was used did not see that need because they just do not care.
When I was doing the investigation on this topic I established that there was never consequence management against those who failed to use the people’s money each year.
The 2021/22 financial year is not the only year when the North West provincial government returned the money.
In the 2020/21 financial year, the notorious North West municipalities failed to spend R138 million in conditional grant funding and had to return it back to the national revenue fund, what a disgrace!
To my surprise, as I have indicated, the political heads, heads of departments, and directors who ensured that lack of service delivery was the order of the day in the North West are still occupying their offices and were never even reprimanded for their gross ineptitude.
Other provinces are also experiencing poor, or a lack of, service delivery, but North West is the worst of all the provinces characterised by levels of protests on a daily basis to prove the people’s dissatisfaction.
The national government is ignoring the people’s concerns in the North West by prioritising their political loyalty towards their own comrades who are presiding over the incompetent government which does nothing for its people.
It would be unfair not to mention the reasons and rationale behind the government’s decision not to use the budget it was allocated by the national Treasury.
Many, if not all, contractors/tenderpreneurs are bribing supply chain management officials and politicians to secure projects for their companies.
Novice or ethical companies not accustomed to how “things are done”, fail to adhere to this way of doing things because they either do not know how the bribe works or are not keen to bribe anyone to do business.
Politicians and government officials never award a tender to a company that does not intend to pay “kickbacks” or bribes to those who ensured that the tender was given to a certain company.
Here, in this province, tenders are not awarded to deserving companies on the basis of merit or capacity but on the basis of political connections.
It is nonsensical to return the money meant to improve the material conditions of the people struggling to access clean water, efficient sanitation, roads, clinics, schools, etc.
We are then driven to end up believing that the Bantustan leader and apartheid puppet Lucas Mangope was a better governor when we know that many people can do better than him. By the current look of things, Mangope is far better than the ANC regime.
For the ANC to be better than Mangope they should employ people and companies that have the skills, knowledge, qualifications, and compassion to do the work they have been contracted to do.
People should not be employed based on their political membership. It is unthinkable to expect a taxi driver to fly a plane without the necessary skills as that will place the lives of the people at risk. What is happening to the people in the North West is that a plane has been taken from a professional pilot and given to a man with no clue on what a plane is.
* Mokgatlhe is an independent writer and political analyst based in the North West province