The Programme Director, Mr S Gumede
The Mayor of the Mtubatuba Municipality, His Worship, Councillor C N Banda
Chairperson of the Portfolio on Public Works, Ms M Fraser
Representatives of local and provincial government
Members of the community
Today it gives me great pleasure to be here in the Umkhanyakude District to officially open the Mtubatuba Sub district office of the Department of Public Works. As a government we are committed to bringing service delivery to areas where it is most needed.
The Department of Public Works is responsible for infrastructure delivery and the management of government owned property. The infrastructure delivery component of the department builds schools, hospitals, clinics and multi‐ purpose community centres. In the last financial year 14 hospital projects, 22 clinic projects, 21 classrooms and 92 toilets were completed.
President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address said that 2011 must be a year of job creation. We must work hard to create work opportunities through the construction of infrastructure and property management. I am happy to announce that in the 2010/11 year the Expanded Public Works Programme created 35 548 jobs in KwaZulu‐Natal. We must work even harder to create more meaningful work opportunities this year.
There are a number of programmes that are geared towards job creation, economic and skills development which target women, youth and the disabled:
- The Izandla Ziyageza programme, this is a site clearance programme were local labour are employed to remove overgrowth and grass from government property. As a result of the cleared vacant land, the labourers can then plant vegetables for the local community which they can use to sustain themselves. For the past year 452 jobs were created, providing a monthly income for 12 months to a beneficiary.
- The Masakhe Emerging Contractor Development Programme aims to elevate previously disadvantaged contractors as well as to increase the number of contractors within the target groups to enable the department to procure services through them. Thus far there are 5 755 contractors on the database.
- The Department of Public Works grows it own timber through the Bursary and Internship Programme to address the scarce skills shortage in the built environment that is facing our country. Thus far 11 bursary holders completed their studies, 7 have been appointed within the department, and 6 interns are currently employed.
- To enable the previously disadvantaged groups to enter the property market, the department launched the Property Incubator programme last year. To date 63 participants drawn from the youth, women, non‐statutory military veterans and the disabled are on this programme.
- I declared my commitment to rooting out fraud and corruption. The Department of Public Works applied for the Presidential SIU proclamation and it was gazetted on 27 August 2010. Thus far 16 cases have been registered with the South African Police Service (SAPS).
As the Department of Human Settlements, we were in Umhlabuyalingana last week to launch our water harvesting programme as well as hand over 700 completed houses in KwaMabaso. We have budgeted R150 million on water tanks for rural housing in KwaZulu‐Natal. Each house will have a water tank and this, we are certain, will make life a little bit easier for our people.
In your municipality we have the Dukuduku Housing Project comprising of 750 units which I approved in in November 2009. Thus far 296 houses have been completed. The balance of 454 units will be repackaged at 40m².
There is much work that is being done by the Department of Public Works in the Umkhanyakude District. There are 318 projects covering education, health, social welfare, agriculture and economic development. All of these will involve the creation of work opportunitities, in line with the directive given by President Zuma and our premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize.
As you can see this government led by the ANC is indeed working to make our lives better.
The Mtubatuba Sub District office project commenced in 2009 at a cost of R28 million. In February this year, this project was completed. It is only fitting that we introduce this beautiful building and the services we offer to the public.
As the Department of Public Works our mandate is infrastructure delivery and the management of state owned property. We want to become the service provider of choice for all government departments. To this end, we will focus on using public funds carefully and wisely to ensure that we deliver services that are value for money on time.
Working together we can do more.
Thank you.
