Committee on Public Works, Roads and Transport seek to invoke Section 100

On Friday, 14 September, the North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio committee on Public Works, Roads and Transport took a decision to call upon the Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi to invoke Section 100 (1)(b) of the Constitution on the Department of Public works, Roads and Transport, which states that when a province cannot or does not fulfill an executive obligation in terms of legislation or the Constitution, the national executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfilment of that obligation.

This decision was taken after the department failed to appear before the committee to account on numerous issues which had been long overdue. Amongst some of the issues that the department was supposed to account on were the R25 million settlement paid by the department to Down Touch company in respect of the Koster-Lichtenburg road debacle, A report on the termination of contracts for the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), progress report on the Wolmaranstad and Schweizer –Reneke road, outstanding payments to Silverblue company,Bokone Holdings,and the first quarterly report of the department.

The Chairperson of the committee, Honourable Hoffman Galeng said that the MEC Raymond Elisha did not send an apology to the committee, instead only officials from the department did so telephonically.

“This department has long been dysfunctional, I have written several letters to the MEC without any response and today, for reasons known to them, they are not here, “We have had enough of them, and they do not take us seriously and we want Section 100 to be invoked on the department,” said Hon. Galeng Other members of the committee also felt the decision to invoke Section 100 has been long and overdue.

“We can’t have taxpayers money spent recklessly, and the MEC and officials deliberately defy appearing before this committee when they have to account, “Thulas Nxesi must intervene in this department, to ensure that they are held accountable,” said Hon Auchalie Mothupi.

"They have failed to deliver regular reports of matters under their control, to make matters worse the department has to pay R36 million as part of the settlement amount to Down Touch, an amount not budgeted for,” said Hon Galeng Down Touch is a contractor who was awarded a tender for the Koster and Lichtenburg road, and was later suspended by the department to hold all operations as they were involved in a court case between the department and Globul Roads. They won the case and chose to settle outside of court with the department, as they felt their relations were already damaged.

The committee decided upon this action according to the recommendations given by the Legal Advisor, Mr. Morero Matli.

“The portfolio committee has every right to pursue channels that would lead to the invocation of Section 100 on the department, having acquired all necessary evidence that appears before them,” said Mr. Matli.