The Whip of the Eastern Cape National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation, Mr Mandla Rayi, has voiced his satisfaction with Provincial Week in the province.
Mr Rayi said he hoped the recommendations in the preliminary reports would be made resolutions that will be adopted by the legislature and forwarded to the relevant departments for implementation. “The main challenges raised in the province concern poverty, sanitation, housing and health services. The OR Tambo District is particularly challenged, with high incidents of HIV and TB and people are still ashamed of taking treatment,” Mr Rayi said.
“Critical challenges in the Port Elizabeth area concern business robberies that target foreign-owned shops, and the municipal debt that is crippling the performance of the metro and impacting negatively on the metro’s budget,” he said.
He highlighted the challenge in the Buffalo City Metro, which has high vacancy rates in key posts with a subsequent negative impact on service delivery. He singled out Amathole District Municipality as among the best performing municipalities and which has received a clean audit.
Mr Rayi was tabling a draft report at the legislature on the findings of the Eastern Cape NCOP delegation during Provincial Week – the NCOP’s week-long oversight programme on the state of service delivery in the provinces.
He said he hoped the provincial legislature and the NCOP will monitor the implementation of the recommendations in the final report. He said the delegation accepted that challenges in the Eastern Cape were great as the province was largely rural.
The Speaker of the Eastern Cape Legislature, Ms Noxolo Kiviet, urged the NCOP permanent delegation to Parliament to be effective in advocating matters that affect the province in Parliament.
For media enquiries or interviews with the delegation leader, please contact:
Sibongile Maputi
Tel: 021 403 8041
Cell: 081 052 6060
E-mail: smaputi@parliament.gov.za
