Your worship the mayor of the KSD municipality
Honorable members of the provincial legislature
Head of department
Regional managers of our valued client departments
Distinguished guests
Fellow colleagues
Allow me to also acknowledge the presence of the designers of this edifice, being:
NN Architects
HHO Engineers
Carifro Consulting Engineers
C&R Engineers
And the contractor: Transtruct Building and Civil Contractors
Last year, the state President, Mr JG Zuma made a pledge to the people of Mthatha being to invest R5 billion towards the upgrading of the town. As you can see around town, some of the efforts have begun to bear fruit. In a report handed to the office of the president recently, the premier stated:
"The KSD municipality is the economic hub of the former Transkei region and other municipalities in the region receive some or most of their services from this centre. This makes KSD central to the service delivery and economic development of the region".
As the municipality needs support to live up to this demand, the premier further quipped: "It is against this background that the municipality requested the national and provincial government to assist in order to address the identified backlogs".
It is an honour today that the Department of Roads and Public Works officially opens this parkade which has contributed so immensely to improving the skyline of this town. This is therefore a pertinent contribution to the call made by the state president.
The rampant crime on the streets of this town should subside as vehicles will be housed in a safe environment. We envisage better piece of mind and concentration for government officials while in the building delivering the very critical services to the public.
Furthermore, fleet vehicles need no more be parked elsewhere unsafe while better tracking opportunities will be afforded in the management of fleet by having vehicles in one area.
The proximity of the facility will further assist officials in better accessing their place of work as opposed to long walks through town to where they may have parked their vehicles as this exposed worker to crime and danger.
This structure is designed to house 260 vehicles. We have decided to double this figure by applying a dynamic facility management procedure, which will ensure that the parkade is optimally utilised at all times.
Our strategy primarily seeks to house vehicles owned by officials during the day and replacing them with government fleet vehicles at night as vehicles return from their various trips.
Officials and departments have pledged to lease parking bays resulting revenue generation and return on investment for the strained provincial fiscus. We profoundly thank the regional departments for this contribution, but a special appreciation goes to members of the Safety Health and Environment Committee (SHEC) in the building, for their advice, cooperation and goodwill.
Throughout the construction of the parkade the department managed to achieve the following:
- three student steel fixers were trained as part of the Accelerated Professional and Trade Competency Development Programme (APTCOD)
- five bricklaying students were trained as part of APTCOD
- Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) student was trained as part of (APTCOD)
- the aesthetic mural on facing Owen Road was deployed as an EPWP project where
- three mosaic tillers were trained.
It remains our commitment as a department to continue to mainstream poverty alleviation in all our projects. Local subcontractors were therefore used for the project under the man contractor.
Earlier this year, as a Department of Roads and Public Works, we pledged to reclaim mandate to that of being: "A custodian of provincial government and immoveable assets and a provider of sustainable infrastructure resulting in social-economic reforms, sector transformation and development".
It is a pleasure to therefore proclaim today that we are placing a major focus on the Botha Sigcau building as a hub of provincial service delivery in this region. This building has seen a gradual facelift wherein the following took place:
- 2004: beautification project costing in excess of R20 million was concluded
- 2009: installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) and asset management system costing R2,100,000
- 2009: access control system R880 000
- 2010: refurbishment of heating and ventilation system
- 2010: installation of new backup generator is expected to be operational by the end of August.
In the immediate future, we envisage to overhaul the internal envelope of the Botha Sigcau building by converting it into an open plan configuration. This will lead to the building being compliant with gazetted space norms, and further present fertile ground for implementation of green building norms on energy consumption.
The trend setting establishment of a common front office floor for all client departments as part of the open plan configuration will prove to be one of the most exciting space management milestones in the province. This will be another first pioneer projects emanating from this town.
Ladies and gentlemen
Our property stock across the length and breadth of the province cannot fully fulfill our accommodation demands; we call upon property owners to participate in the property incubator strategy.
This strategy is meant specifically to mainstream the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) property owners in the province. Accommodation demands in this area remain vast while black economic participation remains a challenge. The two combined present a valuable opportunity for us as a collective.
I therefore make a plea to all users of government facilities to continue looking after all the facilities in order to minimise maintenance demands which put a major strain on our budget coffers.
Never again should this area experience the extent of infrastructure decay that had such a debilitating effect on our property inherited from the past.
Please enjoy your day.
Ndiyabulela!
Source: Department of Roads and Public Works, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
