ANC says good service delivery needs attention
13 August 2015
The ANC Western Cape says although the DA-run Western Cape provincial government boasts with its audit outcomes for the past financial year, it is still not an indicator of good service delivery.
Such an audit merely presents a snapshot of some chosen issues investigated and reported on… It is a sample or a lucky draw test. It is not a thorough in-depth evaluation of all issues to ensure value for money and effective service delivery.
The fact that one of the thirteen departments (Health) still did not get a clean bill of health is of concern as the DA claims it is the best run regional government in the world. Yet, it is the department that receives the lion’s share of the budget from national government is telling us all is not as well as it may be presented to be. The ANC says clean audits is what one expects as it is an imperative from national government and that it does not automatically translate into effective service delivery.
ANC Western Cape finance spokesperson Carol Beerwinkel says: "Just these past weeks we saw education in the province in crisis with brand new schools costing millions of Rand that are unsafe to occupy (built by the provincial department public works), that the critically needed G.F. Jooste hospital in Manenberg which was closed down will not be rebuilt, with many dissatisfaction protests against poor service delivery almost daily at the doors of the very provincial government and even in Oudtshoorn the provincial government was reluctant to intervene to ensure proper service delivery. This provincial government only agreed to the Oudtshoorn intervention after much pressure from national government.
“The trend of the DA is to brag with such results at face value, but it does not address the real issue – which is that audits only show proper bookkeeping and a box-ticking exercise, but not how well a government responds to its mandate and to the needs of its residents. To automatically claim it as evidence of excellent service delivery shows the DA misleads the electorate. Repeatedly the DA does not fare well with the provincial housing board.
“The DA is in fact very lousy and lax when it comes to addressing the real issues. It does not convince the majority (still living in atrocious conditions with inferior services). The DA has a long way to go to really make a difference in the lives of poor and ordinary people.”
Statement issued by ANC Western Cape finance spokesperson Carol Beerwinkel, August 13 2015
