Policy and budget speech presented by the MEC responsible for roads and public works, the honourable Ms Thandiswa Marawu

1. Salutations

Honourable Speaker;
Honourable Premier;
Colleagues in the Executive Council;
Honourable Members of the House;
Distinguished guests;
The masses of our People in all corners of the province;
Our Stakeholders and;
Ladies and gentlemen.

2. Introduction

Honourable Mister Speaker

‘As these Wars of Dispossession drew to an end, Africans embarked on new forms of struggle to achieve the same goals which their military struggle had failed to secure on the field of battle. During the second half of the nineteenth century Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican missionaries were establishing educational institutions in southern Africa which trained teachers, builders, carpenters, printers, ministers of religion and others.

The young men who qualified at these institutions in the Cape soon registered as voters, and entered a new arena to take up the struggle which was drawing to a close on the field of battle. This first-generation product of the mission schools threw themselves unreservedly into the task of recruiting and helping those who could fulfil the conditions for qualifying as voters. They sought to use the constitution to ensure that its democratic mechanisms operated for the benefit of all, white as well as black.

Their genuineness in this regard is shown by the fact they supported election of candidates on the basis of their manifestos and never attempted to use an African bloc vote. This approach has long characterised the policies of the African National Congress (ANC).

“...Caught between the Afrikaner Bond and English-speaking colonists who had combined in a determined attack on the African franchise and access to land, Africans in the Cape formed organisations to unite them against the onslaught. In 1881 they founded lmbumba Yamanyama to fight for the advancement of African rights which the two settler groups sought to destroy. This happened shortly after the formation of the Afrikaner Bond in 1879.

Later, Africans in the Free State, Natal and the Transvaal formed, independently of each other, Native Congresses, while Cape Africans formed the South African Native Congress in 1898. Thus, at the turn of the century racially based political organisations had been formed, on the one hand; by whites to entrench their dominance and, on the other, by blacks to fight for equal rights for all” Govan Mbeki: 1992

Honourable Speaker,

In joining South Africans to celebrate the 100 years of struggle by the African National Congress, the oldest liberation movement in the continent, we have elected to predicate our speech on the excerpts from the seminal works of one of the greatest struggle icons and outstanding revolutionary, Govan Mbeki, writing about the roots of the struggle in his book, ‘The Struggle for liberation in South Africa’.

Honourable Speaker, we do this to welcome this opportunity favoured to us to once again communicate to our people through this respectable house, our policies and programmes but also provide progress on the commitments we have made in the previous financial year.

Through these citations from Oom Gov’s (Govan Mbeki) works, we want to underscore the pivotal role played by our forebears in establishing the Eastern Cape province as the centre, initiator, and catalyst of the broader South African struggles in general, and the African National Congress in particular. In that sense, we want to specifically highlight the weapons they used, namely, power, bravery and astute leadership on the one hand; education, intellectual prowess and incisive leadership, on the other.

During the years of land dispossession the country witnessed an intelligent application of power, bravery, resilience, astute leadership in the execution of military defence of the fatherland by our kings. This assertion is attested to by the number of frontier wars fought in this province.

Again, in the period we have cited above, when the lethal weapons of war were no longer in use, this province displayed an unparalleled understanding of the relevance of a combination of education, intellect, and perspective leadership to continue fighting for the rights of an African majority.

Honourable members, in the face of the perennial challenges we are seized with as a province, it is indeed time to summon these noble attributes. We should do this in order to invite the collective wisdom, political acumen and commitment of the people of this province and marshal them to surmount the triple ills of poverty, unemployment and inequalities bedevilling our country and our province.

In order to succeed in this mammoth task however, we would have to, not only make an environment conducive for all to participate, but also genuinely create space for such meaningful participation to thrive. This is the only way we must embrace in order to reclaim the glory, relevance of the province and pay homage to the great leaders and intellectuals of this revered part of the country.

In this context honourable Speaker, we welcome our government’s pronouncement through the President of the Republic, in declaring the year 2012 as the year of 'infrastructure development’. This call resonates not only with our core mandate, but also with the plans, systems, and the strategic posture the department has adopted in the last two years.

This declaration therefore, validates and strengthens our policy choices, programmes and projects to achieve the objectives of government. The hard choices we have made and we are still going to make should be understood within this context. This policy and budget speech represents change where it is necessary and appropriate, but is, in the main, continuity of the vision and the supporting programmes adopted in the past two and half years.

3. Attaching meaning to the year of infrastructure development - a Department of Roads and Public Works (DRPW) perspective and programme for 2012/1213 financial year

Honourable Speaker,

From 8 to 11 November 2011, the department retreated into a mid-term reflection session in which it took stock of the progress made and challenges encountered in the past two and a half years. In this session, we also considered the objective and subjective factors that define or impact on our business in this period and going forward.

On the economic front we noted that whilst the South African economy is showing encouraging signs of recovery since global recession, there is still a certain degree of vulnerability to events in the global economy, like the events in the Euro-zone. In the building sector the outlook reveals that civil investments remain the highest contributing sector to the gross fixed capital formation.

The Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipality location and infrastructure offers an important strategic link to global markets which allows for cost-effective exporting. The department will therefore make its own contribution to the continued growth of this provincial economic powerhouse.

However, it will have to balance this with other significant contributions in other parts of the province in order to balance access and beneficiation by the people of the province. These revelations honourable members confirm the correctness of government’s declaration for the 2012.

We also appreciated the fact that the Provincial Executive Council has adopted a Provincial Climate Change Response Strategy (PCCRS).

This strategy is in line with the National government response that was released before the hosting of the United Nations Forum on Climate Change’s seventeenth Conference of Parties (COP 17) held in South Africa recently. The national strategy introduces a ‘government building energy efficiency programme’ and this has a direct impact on the core business of this department.

In addition, the provincial strategy mandates the department of Roads and Public Works (DRPW) to play a specific role in the areas of flood management; solar heater roll-out, green building design etc.

The department will, in the next coming year, be consolidating its own response to these policy imperatives. The department’s programme for 2012/13 and beyond is therefore premised on this disposition.

3.1 Propelling Infrastructure Delivery through Central Coordination

In breathing life to the declaration by the state President and the Premier, a solid foundation for the establishment of a central platform for infrastructure coordination and delivery has now been firmly laid. A two pronged approach has now been adopted in pursuance of this critically important task.

Whilst continuing with gradually capacitating and positioning the department of Roads and Public Works to take charge of this role, a Provincial Centralised Management Unit (PCMU) has also been established under the leadership and guidance of the Office of the Premier with the department of Roads and Public Works providing technical support.

The purpose of this unit is to among other things, unlock the immediate infrastructure delivery bottlenecks including fast-tracking infrastructure spend, monitoring projects performance and reporting as well as future planning.

To achieve high efficiency levels the work of this committee has been structured into four work streams focusing on attending to different elements of the identified challenges namely, expenditure, planning, monitoring and reporting. Lessons from this approach will be incorporated into the long term infrastructure delivery improvement programme of the province.

3.1.1 Roads Infrastructure Provision

Honourable Speaker,

Our work in this regard is a continuation of the projects that we started in the previous years. Some of these projects are completed; others were in design stage and are now ready for implementation, while a sizeable number is multi-year.

In this context therefore, we would consolidate our roads infrastructure strategy whose thrust is firstly, to maintain the roads that require maintenance, and secondly continue to support the rural development strategy by ensuring that the inaccessible roads and alternative surfacing programmes are implemented.

We must however make haste to indicate that our roads infrastructure programme continues to be constrained by underfunding in order to address four critical areas that define our infrastructure delivery path. These include, huge infrastructure backlogs, maintenance of the existing assets, responding to incessant flood damages, and meeting the demand for creating new roads.

To illustrate this very point by way of a comparison let us indicate that the Eastern Cape has a roads network totalling to about 43 000 km, 5 000 of which is surfaced, receives R3,2 billion while the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province with a total roads network of about 21 000 receives R4bn. In order to adequately respond to the Presidents call we need to seriously apply our minds in allocating our meager budget.

We need to systematically contain and ultimately reduce spending on the compensation of employees in favour of investing in infrastructure development. The current funding levels suggest that we can only maintain the existing network while spending on new major strategic infrastructure projects will reduce drastically.

It is within this context that priority has been given to roads that will enable communities and our people to access social service centres like schools, hospitals and other social amenities. It is also this situation that has informed the decision to strengthen our partnerships with municipalities to pull resources together in order to attend to critical roads regardless of ownership of such roads. The state of affairs described above necessitated our agreement with the South African Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL).

Honourable Speaker, anyone who travels in the key provincial corridors in the province will attest to the frustration of on-going road-works which delay traffic. This is a positive frustration honourable members because it is an indication that our partnership with SANRAL is paying dividends and that short-term inconvenience seeks to avoid long-term pain and heartache.

SANRAL spent R1,475 Billion in the 2011/12 financial year and is committed to spend R1,807 billion in the Eastern Cape complementing our provincial contribution in Roads and Public Works as will be later outlined. Again, we re-emphasise that the N2 Wild Coast Road is a Provincial Priority and we will be working hard with SANRAL to realise the construction of the 100 km new road through the Pondoland region, creating two of the biggest bridges in Southern Africa, stimulate the economy in the wild coast corridor and create jobs.

The foregoing challenges notwithstanding, the department continues to draw inspiration from our forefathers who, in spite of the less advanced armoury and resources at their disposal, stood their ground for 100 years in defence of their land.

We too, within the meagre infrastructure resources at our disposal continue to enthuse our people with our roads programme which is categorised into two broad areas. These are roads that create pivotal linkages in support of business and industrial development in critical parts of the province, on the one hand; those that expose the scenic landscapes of the hinterland and the majestic coastal lines of the province thereby promoting the Eastern Cape as the tourist destination of choice while creating access to social services and promoting social cohesion, on the other hand.

The relationship between these categories honourable members is dynamic and aims to stimulate social and economic development of the province and its people.

Honourable Speaker,

This is the context within which the following key strategic roads projects will be implemented:

N2 Wild Coast, R63 – Bisho to KWT, Bisho to Zwelitsha and Zwelitsha to KWT, Butterworth to Centani, Ugie Langeni Phase 3, Wild Coast Meander – Centani to Qolorha / Kei Mouth, Wild Coast Meander – Centani to Mazeppa Bay via Tafalofefe Hospital, Wild Coast Meander – Tombo to Mpamba (Isilimela Hospital), R72 Tolling Strategy – Fonteinskloof to Nanaga (Port Alfred and the Fish River and, Fish River and Keiskamma River). R63 - Bisho to N6.

In addition to this and of critical importance is the fact that the honourable Premier has now formally requested the Minister of Transport to take over responsibility for approximately 2011 km of the provincial road network identified as forming part of the National Strategic Road Network.

The roads in question are the following:

The transfer of these roads to SANRAL will mean funds currently spent on maintenance of these routes can be shifted to other roads in the Province thus allowing the province to service a wider coverage. It is important to remember that these roads remain investment of the province.

We are however awaiting the Ministers proclamation. These roads will add to the list of roads that SANRAL is already doing in the province which includes the following: R61- Bizana to Port Edward (Magusheni-Mzamba), R63 Phase 1: N6 to Bisho- to commence in 2013/14 (rehabilitation), RMC Tar: R62 Misgund to Humansdorp RMC Tar: R63 Western Cape Boundary to N10; RMC Tar: R63 N10 to N2 (Komga) RMC Tar: R61 Port Edward to Port St Johns.

To strengthen our partnership with municipalities we will continue with the Service Level Agreements with the following municipalities: Joe Gqabi DM, Chris Hani DM, Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, Elundini Municipality, Senqu Municipality, Maletswai, Gariep, BCM, KSD, Port St John’s Municipality, and Tsolwana Municipality. Chris Hani DM and Joe Gqabi are up for review to incorporate other critical municipal roads.

3.1.2 Buildings Infrastructure

Honourable Speaker

As we indicated earlier in our speech that the anchor for improved infrastructure delivery is heightened centralised coordination of key functions including planning, monitoring of projects performance and expenditure. In this regard, we have established the Programme Management Unit which will exist and operate alongside the Provincial Centralized Management Unit coordinated by the Director-General. This approach will, among other things, help us increase the infrastructure delivery capability of the province.

Within this context therefore, the department will continue to implement projects on behalf of the departments of Health and Education. The following major projects will be implemented in the 2012/13 financial year. Mt Frere social cluster offices in Mt Frere, Heath Park College renovation in Cacadu, branding of the Dukumbana building in Bhisho, Ex CPA Library in Aliwal North and Huis Beyers Naude in Graaf Reinet.

Our work regarding the Small Town Revitalisation (STR) continues to inspire us. This programme has received the support of the Executive Council (Exco) and is now a government programme and a provincial priority.

However, if any considerable impact is to be achieved, structured and substantive approach needs to be strengthened. In this regard, the decision to make this programme a provincial priority is an important development in the context of coordination, integration as well as resource mobilisation and optimal utilisation thereof.

The available resources will therefore be supported by a clear project management process that would resource each initiative per town as well as the overall programme. An integrated Small Town Revitalisation strategy has since been developed by the departments of Roads and Public Works, Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and Local Government and Traditional Affairs to address some of the issues raised above.

This work will be building on the progress already made in this programme. To date, the Bhisho Massacre Memorial is nearing completion and the Bhisho Massacre Memorial Contact Centre valued at R22 million is at Bid Evaluation stage whilst the Ceremonial Boulevard will be advertised in March 2012 and site handover envisaged for May 2012. The Bisho memorial contact centre will be a gateway to Bhisho the seat of government. Other entrants to the centre are planned for improvement in the current financial year.

We are also busy with the Office Park development project in the following areas: Nyandeni, Port St Johns, and Lukhanji. Progress in other towns includes clean-up campaign with PSJ municipality, refurbishment of the hawkers stalls at the taxi rank, painting the taxi rank and a Junior Secondary School including renovating and fixing ablution facilities, donation of office furniture to three schools.

A networking session including town planning session was also held in partnership with Border Chamber of Architects and SA Property on 8 and 9 March 2012. Regarding the provision of office accommodation and in line with the cabinet resolution of relocating the Eastern Cape government departments from the Kokstad to Mt Ayliff, we wish to report that to date, three (3) provincial departments namely, department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT), department of Transport (DoT), department of Safety and Liaison(DSL) that were previously operating in leased buildings in Kokstad have been relocated to Mt Ayliff, in the Eastern Cape government owned buildings.

The total savings made on rentals are approximately R1,4m annually. The other three departments, Roads and Public Works, Treasury and Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR), will be relocating in this financial year. Planning for the remaining departments is in process. Once again, a major intervention in this regard will be made by Umzimvubu Municipality with the development of permanent office accommodation for all government departments in the area.

In addition to this, the department is currently upgrading two government owned buildings, Old Heath Park College in Cacadu and Komani Hospital in Queenstown to move user departments into government owned buildings. In this instance government would save R4,5 million annually. Regarding the Bhisho office complex, we have made vital progress.

We are mindful of the fact that this project has delayed a lot. We must therefore indicate that it was absolutely necessary to tread carefully given the enormity of the capital required and the significance of this initiative. We are thrilled to indicate that the department in partnership with the ECDC will soon make a major announcement regarding this matter.

In giving impetus to our programmes for job creation programme and youth development, we are rethinking the approach to maintenance of government properties. To this effect, starting in this financial year, we shall be reducing significantly the use of private contractors in maintenance work.

All Minor repairs, renovations and un-planned maintenance works, grass cutting as well as gardening services will be done by our in-house teams including National Youth Service (NYS) corps, and artisans developed through the Accelerated Professional and Trade Competency Development (APTCoD) programme.

Honourable Speaker,

We finally have a firm handle on the Immovable Asset Register. Jointly with all user departments, we have commenced with the implementation of a new framework to manage Immovable Assets that is aligned to the Government Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA). We can confidently say that we now have a Custodian Asset Management Plan that provides the province with the baseline data on the lifecycle and management requirements of all immovable assets.

It further identifies the resource needs for infrastructure requisites for all users to meet their service delivery needs. To further define our contribution to social cohesion and the celebration of our history and heritage, we have transferred Erf 618 in Hankey for the construction of the Sarah Baartman Centre of Remembrance.

Other properties have also been transferred to various municipalities within the province most of which are to upgrade tenure because this would effectively enable municipalities to register those properties in the names of the recipients.

Honourable Speaker,

In addition to this and giving effect to our disposal policy, we have now developed the disposal plans which we will implement from the first, 1 April 2012. In terms of these disposal plans, we will start with residential properties which we have categorised into three as follows:

• The first category is for people who have been staying in the same house for ten (10) years and above. This category of people will be given the first option to purchase the property at market related price. If after three months the occupant is not purchasing or making an offer to purchase, the property will be subjected to open market. At an appropriate time the department will make contact with these people. (We must warn the people that we have a very strict and effective verification system)
• The second category is the houses whose value and standard is the same as the government RDP houses. These houses will be transferred to the occupants. Strict criteria will be followed in transferring these houses.
• The third and final category is of people earning between R3 500 and R15 000 a month. We are in discussion with the department of Human Settlements to look at the possibility of assisting this category of people through the new housing subsidy scheme.

3.2 Forging ahead with the fight against Poverty and Unemployment

Honourable Speaker,

We now come to the programme that is closest to our people, the Community Based Public Works Programme (commonly known as EPWP). This House will no doubt know that this is a programme through which we implement poverty alleviation, job creation and empowerment interventions.

Financial year 2012/13, presents an opportunity to deepen our anti-poverty and empowerment interventions. Our priorities reflect the continuation of previous year’s initiatives as they resonate to job creation and skills development. To this end, we will implement the following interventions in the 2012/13 financial year:

As the Honourable Premier has already pronounced, 116 958 work opportunities will be created provincially by public bodies implementing the Expanded Public Works Programme.

An estimated 7 000 additional Household Contractors will be recruited as part of our contribution to the Provincial Roads Maintenance Programme (S’hamba Sonke). This will take the total number of household contractors engaged by the department to a staggering 37 000 by the end of 2012/13 financial year.

The department will also resuscitate 54 Hlumisa Savings Clubs formed by household contractors. Honourable members, we are filled with exultation to indicate that, to date, these poor people in our communities have accumulated a staggering R25 million in savings and inspired by this, the department will assist in transforming them into viable livelihood and income generation entities.

We believe that this is a timely intervention as it will gradually, but purposefully move the poorest of the poor in our province from mere dependency on government income transfers to being active agents in their own development.

Honourable Speaker, as indicated earlier, our country and indeed our province is experiencing rapidly diminishing numbers of artisans. During the next financial year, we will increase the number of trainee artisans enrolled in the APTCoD programme by 200.

Training and development initiatives of the department will also be upscaled and diversified. 3 000 household contractors will be trained in technical and life skills, while 9 000 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) beneficiaries will be trained in all sectors of EPWP in the province. Furthermore, 500 young people will be placed on the department’s national youth service.

Honourable Speaker, an exciting development in respect of NYS in the next financial year is that it will now be mainstreamed into our roads related areas wherein we will train our NYS learners in pothole patching, road construction through our in-house teams and plant operations through our Mechanical Unit.

Honourable Speaker, having successfully launched Amathuba Jobs Portal, registration sites are now operational and we will ensure that at least 10 000 work seekers find jobs through the portal.

To strengthen our stakeholder and community participation initiatives, we will also roll-out Roads Forums which are an important platform for consulting and planning with our stakeholders on matters related to our mandate as an infrastructure delivery department.

Of critical importance, these roads forums will play a pivotal role in ensuring that there is alignment between the department’s plans and those of municipalities as they find expression in their respective Integrated Development Plans (IDPs).

Honourable Speaker,

I can assure our people through this house that we will fulfil all these commitments because we have already demonstrated that we have the capacity and commitment to do so. Allow us therefore honourable members to demonstrate that indeed we can.

In the last policy speech, we committed through the Expanded Public Works Programme that the following will be done:

About 94 504 work opportunities will be created provincially by the end of the Financial Year. We are very pleased to inform the House that the province has already exceeded this target as all Public Bodies implementing EPWP in the Eastern Cape reported 110 472 work opportunities by the end of the second quarter of 2011/12 financial year.

About 6 000 people from our poorest households will be recruited into our flagship Household Contractors Programme. This annual target was surpassed when 6 584 household contractors were recruited by the end of December 2011.

In furtherance of our pledge to develop young people of our province, we undertook to recruit and train 500 young people into our National Youth Service (NYS) Programme. Honourable members, by the end of February 2012, 412 young people received accredited training in six (6) trade disciplines namely, bricklaying, carpentry, electrical works, painting, plumbing and welding.

As our response to the scarcity of artisan skills in our province, we also committed to recruiting 450 learners into our innovative APTCoD programme. By the end of the third (3rd) quarter of this Financial Year, 439 APTCoD learners were contracted.

Honourable Speaker, the scourge of unemployment requires creative interventions hence in our last policy speech the department committed to developing and launching Amathuba jobs portal as a tool for matching jobseekers with potential employers. We are therefore pleased to announce that Amathuba jobs portal was successfully launched in August of 2011.

Last but not least Honourable Speaker, as the department charged with coordinating EPWP in the Province, we wish to convey our deep sense of appreciation to all municipalities and public bodies for their sterling work in ensuring that our people have access to employment through which they can improve their livelihoods. The achievements we have just recounted would not have been possible without their unwavering support and partnership.

3.3 Towards Good Corporate Support and Clean Governance

Honourable Speaker,

We have realised that in order to succeed in achieving our objectives, we need to continuously improve our operations. This improvement will only come when our administrative support is stable, effective and efficient.

Honourable members would recall that after the reestablishment of the department of Roads and Public Works as a consequence of a transfer of the roads function, we developed a new organogram. We are pleased to indicate that the structure is now in the final stages of the approval processes.

We are indeed ready to populate the structure with competent and capable workforce. We are proud to point out that despite the fact that the department has been operating with skeletal staff, we have recorded remarkable achievements.

However, we also understand that such a structure will not be optimal if it is not supported and aligned to sound business processes, systems and procedures. In this regard, we are continuing with our programmes to make the department of Roads and Public Works a functional organisation.

In our quest to establish the department as a knowledge based and continuous learning organisation, we have embraced innovation as an anchor of this pursuit. Assisted by the Office of the Premier, we have developed, customised and approved the Innovation and knowledge Management strategy. The strategy has a comprehensive implementation manual to guide practical application and institutionalisation of innovation and knowledge management.

This strategy, honourable members will be supported by a departmental resource centre which is now at the stage where we are purchasing the materials that would make it a functional resource centre.

To give effect to continuous performance improvement and operational excellence, we have adopted Balasela as a performance monitoring and evaluation system. We have now rolled out the system to all our regions and are now busy with assessments.

The by-product of this process is the service delivery improvement plan that will guide us towards effective performance. In the face of the declining budget allocations, we will step up our capacity to exercise financial prudence. We will strengthen our efforts to improve the financial management systems including, among others, the invoice tracking system. These will be supported by recruiting competent financial management personnel.

We believe that this will not only improve financial management, but also contribute immensely towards the success of emerging service providers. Sound financial management starts with good and functional procurement establishment. We will therefore strengthen our procurement system. This will be supported by effective risk management and fraud prevention environments as well as a well-oiled internal audit.

To this end, we shall finalise the process of vetting all personnel involved in procurement processes. This process has begun and we are working hard to ensure that it is finished by end of May 2012.

We are also developing a comprehensive strategy to fittingly respond to matters that affect the vulnerable groups, in particular, people with disabilities. Employment equity will also receive undivided attention in this financial year.

Honourable Speaker,

Having achieved the unqualified audit opinion for two consecutive years, we are now confident that clean governance is indeed within reach and are well set and committed in a journey to achieving it.

4. Budget allocation

Let us now provide this respected house with our budget allocation and how it is distributed among programmes for the 2012/13 financial year.

Mister Speaker, the total allocation to the department for the 2012/13 financial year is R3,741,601bn. This represents an increase of 6,7% or 235,515 million in our current budget.

5. Conclusion

As we conclude, let us steal from one of the distinguished economists of all time, John Maynard Keynes when he said ‘Poverty is a great evil; and economic advantage is a real good not to be sacrificed to alternative real goods unless it is clearly of an inferior weight.”

In our endeavour to grow the economy in order to create the much needed jobs, fight poverty and inequalities; let us allow Keynes’ words linger in our minds.

Mister Speaker, Members of the House, at this stage I let me extend a heartfelt word of admiration to the management and staff of the department of Roads and Public Works under the leadership of the Head of Department (HoD). Let me also pass a word of gratitude to the Premier, my colleagues in the Executive Council and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works for their support.

I thank you!