Gauteng government captured before Guptas

24 May 2016

The Office of the Premier has a budget of R449.4 million, which is less than half of one percent of the total budget of R103.4 billion.

But it is always described as the nerve centre of the provincial government, so just as the brain of a human body has very little relative weight but controls and monitors everything, so too should be the role of this office.

The Honourable Premier has a rational and considered strategic approach. He understands the political peril that the ANC faces in this province as a result of service delivery failures and the unpopularity of President Jacob Zuma.

But the question is, what does a smart brain do when the limbs are disabled?

I say this because time and time again the Honourable Premier is let down by poor performance in the departments.

How is it possible, for instance, that R908 million in housing funds was taken away from this province at the end of February because it was unspent?

This money could have built about 9000 houses.

Then we have the Gauteng Health Department that failed to spend R738 million of last year’s budget.

And I could go through myriads of other failures in other departments.

The Honourable Premier’s remedy for the housing failure was to bring back the Honourable Paul Mashaile to head the Human Settlements Department.

This is a man who was premier for only seven months and was cast aside by his own party in favour of a new premier who was mandated to clear up the mess that he had left behind.

And sad to say, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane left her own mess behind which our present premier critiques by saying we need radical change.

Yes, we do need a radical change from ANC mismanagement of this province.

Radical change means to get to the root of the problem.

The root of the problem in Gauteng is cadre deployment and general political interference in what needs to be done to run an efficient administration.

This goes hand in hand with extensive corruption and jobs for pals.

Every time we hear of another instance of lack of delivery, or irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, you can trace it to corruption or the wrong person in the wrong job.

Why is it that so many tenders go to companies that can’t deliver on time or within budget?

The phenomenon of state capture is not restricted to the administration of President Jacob Zuma.

This province was captured long ago by another set of forces.

Our EFF colleagues in this House were after the wrong target when they asked every department if they had dealings with a Gupta-owned company.

Most of the replies were in the negative and there is a reason for that.

The reason is that this province has been in the firm hands of another set of interests associated with long-running ANC provincial chairperson Honourable Paul Mashatile.

It’s been described in the press as the “Alex Mafia” – his friends and associates in key positions in the provincial government who are influential in getting contracts to connected companies.

So the Guptas were largely shut out of Gauteng in favour of another network of state capture.

The return of Honourable Mashatile reinforces this unhealthy influence which does this province so much damage.

The Honourable Premier will have an uphill battle using his office to get all the departments functioning efficiently and effectively.

This is because the problem is deeply ingrained within his own party.

The Gauteng ANC may try to distance itself from President Zuma, first calling on him to make the right decision after the Constitutional Court ruling on Nkandla, and then reversing itself in an embarrassing way.

But I don’t think the voters in Gauteng will be fooled. 

They have an opportunity on 3 August to vote in a party at local level that will really deliver to the people in an honest and effective way.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Spokesperson on the Office of the Premier, 24 May 2016