Supra’s budget an open purse for looters and liars

8 May 2018

Honourable Speaker,

Today we are debating a budget of R775.38 million.

A budget that remains at the mercy of looters, liars and corrupt individuals.

Indeed, Speaker, we are debating a budget of a Premier whose offices have recently been raided by the Hawks.

A budget of a Premier who faced a motion of no confidence.

A budget of a Premier whose son received an R1.1-million bursary while thousands in this province suffer without proper education or jobs.

A budget of a Premier who gave permission to the Head of the Health Department Thabo Lekalakale to travel overseas paid by the peoples’ money. Under his nose R30 million was paid to Mediosa when no services have been rendered. All this while there is currently no medication available at most of our clinics. People suffer due to no medical services here.

A budget of the Premier,  where the ANC Youth League Leader Collen Maine publicly admitted he has met members of the Gupta family through the introduction of Mahumapelo.

The DA  and the people of the North West will not support this budget.

According to the Office of the Premier, the IT and Communication project was intended to rebrand, reposition and renew systems for the province. The raid by the Hawks in the Premier’s office made it clear that this project defied the purpose of what it was intended for.

Corruption and organised crime have become the order of the day in a province where millions are unemployed.

This is evident when perusing an allocation and increase of R121-million under the so-called corrupt Programme 2, Institutional Development. The  ICT programme and the centralisation of non-employees bursaries from all departments.

An increase from R93 million in the 2014/15 to R214 million in 2016/17 for goods and services.  Payments made to Nepo Data Dynamics. These figures are still growing rapidly.

When the department appeared before our committee, we warned them that Nepo Data Dynamics is procuring services without proper processes – thus illegal.

The department’s response was that Nepo Data Dynamics is a project management unit and their job entails procuring services on behalf of the Office of the Premier.

It is clear, after the raid of the HAWKS, that they were merely contracted to come and steal from the poor.

This can be seen through a budget of R93.9-million in 2014/2015 increasing to a whopping R214-million in 2016/17 and increasing even more to R223.6-million in 2017/18.

The AG report stated that Nepo has charged R5-million for a router worth only R800 000.

The department’s response was that it was not a router, but an “enterprise-class storage device with embedded software”.

With all this said it is now time for the Portfolio Committee to do oversight and to go see for ourselves where this router or device is.

Speaker, the intention to extend the service of Nepo to our municipalities must be stopped.

They will rob the people blind!

Payment for capital assets increased by 259.1% for 2018/19 and is due to the replacement of redundant furniture and information technology equipment.

Instead, the Office of the Premier must rather focus on performance and try to keep track of the implementation of projects to grow the economy, develop employment opportunities and to combat fraud and corruption.

This province is managed to the gutters. It has cultivated and prepared the North West soil to become a looting ground. Our communities deserve Total Change – jobs, services and an accountable government. Total Change only a DA-led government can bring.

Issued by Joe McGluwa, DA North West Provincial Leader, 8 May 2018