Over the past 100 days since he was appointed as Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure on 3 July 2024, Minister Dean Macpherson has begun the difficult task of building a firm foundation at the department to turn the country into a construction site and use public assets for public good. Among the measures the Minister has implemented over the past three months include:
- Reforming and strengthening the role of Infrastructure South Africa to become a single point of entry for all priority infrastructure projects to ensure that they are completed on time and within budget.
- Met with a large number of financial institutions, technical advisory’s and construction specialists to drive new interest in our construction book.
- Tackling maladministration and corruption head-on by launching investigations into failed public sector construction projects such as the close to R1 billion which was spent on the Telkom Building projects in Tshwane, and requesting the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate possible improve leases agreements concluded to recover taxpayer money.
- Working with Municipalities such as Tshwane, eThekwini and Cape Town to establish technical task teams between the cities and the department to address problem state-owned buildings and work together to use state assets for the public good.
- Finalising two orders in Cape Town to remove people who have invaded state-owned properties at the Castle of Good Hope and the Waterloo properties to ensure the properties are used for the public good.
- Tackling the construction mafia by organising an urgent summit in KwaZulu-Natal to develop a comprehensive response to the construction mafia with Ministers in the law enforcement cluster, and Public Works Members of the Executive Council (MECs) across the country.
- Improving oversight of property management by moving the Prestige Unit, which was responsible for the Nkandla scandal, back to Director General’s office, and removing the ability of officials to spend up to R20 million without accounting officer approval.
- Advertised critical vacancies in the department to improve governance stability within the department.
The Minister said that while a lot of progress have been made to bring stability to the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure, these efforts need to be accelerated to turn the country into a construction site and use public assets for public good in order to grow the economy and create jobs. South Africans urgently needs to start seeing the fruits of our interventions.
“I applaud the government officials and stakeholders in both the public and private sector who have worked tirelessly with me over the past three months. There is truly a new energy within the department to deliver on our mandate,” Minister Macpherson said.
“In the weeks and months ahead, we need to expedite our efforts to ensure that we get shovels into the ground so that communities across the country can see the fruits of our work in practice. In the weeks and months to come, there will continue to be difficult decisions we have to make, but the choices we make today will be to our advantage in the future.”
For enquiries:
James de Villiers
Spokesperson for Minister Macpherson
Cell: 082 766 0276
