What glamorous, non-essential projects is De Lille hiding?

18 May 2020

On the 13th of May, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure appeared before a joint committee sitting to submit their annual performance plans and budget for the coming year. Although an array of officials appeared, Minister Patricia De Lille was conspicuous in her absence, citing duties at the constitutionally dubious National Command Council.

During the course of this engagement, I raised questions about the so called "Prestige Projects and State Functions" listed in the presentation.

Tucked neatly away towards the end of the presentation, two projects and eight state events were set down with allocations of R102 million for Prestige "policies" and R91 million for "Prestige Accommodation and State Functions" with no specific details as to their purpose.

Prestige Projects and State Functions concern maintenance on state-owned properties such as presidential and ministerial residences.  The infamous "fire-pool" of Nkandla is just one such example.

The queries raised by myself were, firstly to the details of these projects and functions and secondly, to the necessity of non-essential expenditure in the context of the Covid-19 crisis where every available cent should be dedicated to caring for a nation in desperate need of poverty and economic relief.

By the end of the presentation and the responses by Director-General Sam Vukela and his coterie of officials, these questions were left unanswered. Vukela was pressed again for a response and he grudgingly advised that the answers on Prestige Projects and State Functions were too complex in the time left and that a written answer would be forthcoming on the following day.

Despite this exchange being widely reported in the media, the promised written response has still not been received.

The only inference that can be drawn is that the Department and by extension, Minister De Lille are hiding ill-advised expenditure from the public. Prestige projects and state functions have come under fire in recent times for extravagant and glamourous excess spending while the remainder of the country plunges into the depths of economic misery.

To make matters worse, to even contemplate this sort of expenditure during the Covid-19 crisis is unconscionable and will not stand. This is not the time for gluttony.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will fight to expose the details of this planned expenditure and will act to have them removed entirely from the Department’s budget.

Issued by Tim Brauteseth, DA NCOP Member for Public Works and Infrastructure, 18 May 2020