Gauteng sets billions aside for racially integrated communities

A total of R240 billion. This is the amount the Gauteng government plans to spend on building racially integrated households who use the same health-care centres, schools, malls and places of entertainment. The new communities will be near the workplaces of residents.

Gauteng MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy made the announcement when she tabled her medium-term budget policy statement and the adjustment appropriation bill in the provincial legislature yesterday.

While the three-year plan includes the construction of schools, Creecy also announced major relief for overcrowded schools that have a shortage of teachers.

She said her department had allocated an additional amount of R300 million for the appointment of new teachers in new schools and more in overcrowded schools. The allocation is for next year.

Detailing her three-year plan, Creecy said it would include the development of Gauteng townships into suburbs as well as the dismantling of the sprawling informal settlements -the highest numbers of those being in and around Joburg.

Premier David Makhura initially announced the R240bn plan in his State of the Province address in June.

Creecy said her department had set aside R32bn over three years for economic infrastructure investments aimed at creating jobs.

Makhura had said the total infrastructure budget would increase to R94bn, which took into account the existing budget of the provincial and local government spheres.

In her address, Creecy said Makhura had established a provincial infrastructure coordinating committee to ensure there was better planning in any major infrastructure development.

"Our investment in infrastructure will be accompanied by the doubling of our efforts to eliminate wasteful expenditure, which generally happens as a result of cost escalation, project scope changes, lack of planning and weak project management," Creecy said.

She was insistent that the open-tender process, which the province launched last week, was the solution to the fight against corruption and the slow implementation of government projects.

She said companies doing business with the government must be severely punished and in some cases blacklisted if their work was sloppy.

"I say this because we all agree that underspending on these programmes deprives communities of important amenities, including roads, healthcare and social services, as well as negatively impacting on the job-creation efforts of the government.

"The next three years will see the rigorous monitoring of the provincial government’s infrastructure service delivery programme becoming a major focus for the provincial treasury and the provincial executive council."

The MEC said the open-tendering system would monitor the pricing of materials, goods and other items procured by the government to expose collusion among private companies, particularly in the construction and food industries.

Creecy promised that defaulting companies would be publicly exposed and the owners prosecuted.

"A fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective procurement of goods and services, including engineering, construction and disposals, is essential in maintaining confidence in the government’s ability to manage public funds," she said.

Creecy also said the provincial government would continue to use money generated from gambling, vehicle licence fees and patient fees to fund government projects.

The Star