Premier Phumulo Masualle has pleaded with government officials to deliver efficient services, warning that failure to do so will see the protests springing up across the country, spreading to the Eastern Cape.
Masualle was addressing a conference of Bhisho senior managers who converged at the East London International Convention Centre on Thursday, to firm up a strategy to roll out government’s priorities towards next year, which is an elections year.
He said next year’s provincial and general elections would be a testing ground for the ANC-led government across provinces, including the Eastern Cape, to assess whether they have delivered on the promises made in 2014.
“The leadership in government will be severely tested and required to account if we don’t change the situation for the better.
“The growing service delivery protests countrywide are indicative of what we must expect closer to next year’s vote,” said Masualle.
His comments come a day after ANC chief whip Fundile Gade expressed concern about the Bhisho government’s failure to speed up the construction of the multibillion-rand Umzimvubu water project that former president Jacob Zuma launched 10 years ago.
Addressing the media during his state of the province address earlier this year, Masualle said the project had stalled as there was still no breakthrough on the funding model.
The conference, which was attended by members of his cabinet, senior state officials, including heads of departments and senior managers of parastatals, was held on the day that disgruntled people in Mahikeng, in North West, took to the streets and looted a mall and shops over poor service delivery.
These include poor roads infrastructure, as well as claims that there are no drugs for patients in some public hospitals.
He said it was important that the bureaucrats attending the conference ask themselves critical questions and say: “What are those things we need to do to change people’s perceptions and bring about confidence?”
Also of concern, he said, were municipalities which were not functioning properly, and failing to service their residents .
Masualle said, however, he was also aware that in some cases, politicians also played a role in making such municipalities non-functional.
“I’m mindful that at political levels we need to correct certain things that also impact on the proper functioning of the municipalities and our institutions generally.”
He identified key areas which he said needed to be addressed by the conference. These include high levels of fraud and corruption, the billions of claims for medical legal claims due to negligence in some of the hospitals, and the failure to fill critical posts in some of the provincial government departments.
Masualle said in the medico-legal claim, there are “no consequences on those who have been found to have been negligent and those colluding with unscrupulous lawyers”. — zineg@dispatch.co.za