delivers a speech in support of the national Budget Vote Speech of the
department, National Assembly, Parliament, Cape Town, Western Cape
28 March 2007
Madam Speaker
The Minister of Public Works
Honourable Members
Infrastructure development and its prioritisation by government is one of
the key interventions to improve people's access to services essential to
social development and economic growth. Realising the responsibility placed on
it, the Department of Public Works has continuously worked hard to improve its
financial and project management as demonstrated by the ability to spend
entirely their capital works and maintenance budgets, ensuring that public
funds are properly invested in the areas where they will help increase output,
improve service delivery, reduce public infrastructure backlogs while promoting
economic growth particularly among the sections of our population still
vulnerable to the ravaging realities of the second economy.
In recognition, the department has, for two successive years, been accorded
unqualified audit reports. Indications are that the department will once again
fully spend its allocation in the year ending in 3 days' time. Strengthened by
this experience, the department welcomes the vote allocation of three billion,
six hundred and ninety three million and one hundred and twenty thousand rand
(R3 693 120 000) for the new financial year (2007/08).
The increased budget will be used in the main to add to the capital works
budget including prestige accommodation as well as fund the additional human
resource capacity necessary to drive the programmes of the department including
the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
Our construction building programme which is comprehensive and extensive in
scope is driven by the necessity to provide public infrastructure designed to
create a better life for all. In the previous year the department successfully
delivered significant public assets such as the Nerina One Stop Place of Safety
for the Youth at Port Elizabeth, the magistrate court at Madadeni near
Newcastle. Meanwhile the contract for the construction of the New Medium
Security Correctional Centre at Kimberly was awarded in October 2006.
Currently major work (new acquisitions and mega maintenance projects) are
underway notably the construction of the National Library and the new Head
Offices for the national Department of Education as well as the upgrading of
both the Civitas and the CGO Buildings in the Tshwane City Centre.
We have prepared Master Plans for the refurbishment of both the Union
Buildings and the Bryntirion Estate. Besides their day to day importance in
government and governance, the two properties are part of our heritage, and
like many state's immoveable assets, they have been affected by the erratic
maintenance patterns in the past. Once approved, the Master Plans will
implement the recommendations contained in the status quo report which among
others put emphasis on the security upgrades, water reticulation and upgrades
of all electrical requirements.
In Cape Town, several ministerial residences and Parliamentary villages were
upgraded in the last year and many more will be identified for renovations in
line with the National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy approved by Cabinet,
which encourages increased investment into the maintenance of our
infrastructure to augment their appreciative value, enhance their looks while
preserving their heritage status. To meet the accommodation needs of the
expanded Cabinet, we have begun to procure additional ministerial dwellings and
this project will proceed even into the new financial year.
To promote regional economic growth, the department completed construction
refurbishment projects at some key border posts. Overall 34 of the 55 land
border posts were placed under the programme for repairs and maintenance to
ensure that occupational, health and safety requirements are met meanwhile
enabling the user departments to deliver better services. The 2007/08 financial
year will see the department further developing, maintaining and doing
upgradings at the ports of entry at Namibian, Botswana, Swaziland and
Mozambican borders.
The building of the three African embassies is at the different stages of
construction in Ethiopia, Lesotho and Nigeria and their completion is scheduled
for the new calendar year. In the meantime the department has commenced with
the design and construction of a further four embassies, this time in Tanzania,
Rwanda, Malawi and Swaziland.
Both the Departments of Public Works and Defence are jointly involved in a
Presidential project to renovate the OR Tambo School of Leadership situated at
Kaweweta in Uganda. This is a military camp where the African National Congress
(ANC) Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadres stayed during the liberation struggle. We
will continue to expand our commitment to honour and respect those fallen on
foreign soil, such as those under the United Nations Commonwealth Graves. We
believe that particular consideration should also be given to mark and remember
those that died in the cause of South Africa's liberation.
All these symbols of African renaissance coincide with the inception of the
construction of the Pan African Parliament building at a site owned by the
government of South Africa in Midrand, Gauteng. We hope to go out on tender in
the second half of 2007.
Given the booming construction industry, the department and its entities
continuously engage in strategies to further increase the contribution of the
sector to growth and development. However, the skills deficit and erratic
skills supply in the built environment hampers growth. There is an overriding
imperative to create, retain and replenish critical skills necessary for growth
within the dictates of the Joint Initiative for the Prioritisation of Skills
Acquisition (JIPSA), hence our distress call to the Council for the Built
Environment (CBE) to develop a comprehensive Human Resources Development
strategy for the sector, also prioritising the training of unemployed youth and
graduates in artisan skills, to meet the 2010 JIPSA target of 50 000 for such
skills.
The proposed launch of the labour intensive National Youth Service in the
built Environment, targeting 10 000 recruits in its first year of operation, is
one part of the solution. The other part will see the department intensify its
2014 National Youth Foundation programmes in conjunction with the Military
Skills Development initiative of the Department of Defence to train youth in
both the military discipline and built environment professional services.
Graduates from the scheme are already pursuing built environment disciplines
at tertiary level after completing high school with the financial assistance
from the department. Artisan and professional skills are a critical challenge
facing the construction industry and the Department has contributed to the
Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition, notably through a study on
skills requirements and bottlenecks in the skills pipeline. A number of
interventions are planned to support the industry in this challenge.
One of the interventions we are exploring with industry is support to
establish an industry-led Employment Skills Development Agency that would
create a pool of learners, thus assisting small and medium sized enterprises to
take on and provide experiential learning to artisans in training. We are
committed to co-operate with industry, the Further Education Training (FET)
colleges and the Construction Education Training Authority (CETA) on these and
other initiatives. We have also called upon the Council for the Built
Environment (CBE) to prioritise a comprehensive Human Resource Development
strategy for the sector.
In the interim, the intergovernmental forum of the Public Works ministers
has decided to explore the possibility of bringing a range of built environment
professionals from countries with whom we have bilateral relations such as Cuba
to assist with ramping up the capacity and delivery skills of the public
sector. In anticipation of the frantic developments in the industry and the
economy, the Public Works sector is re-capacitating itself particularly at
management and other professional levels. Our Human Resource section has
developed innovative initiatives to eradicate the vacancy rate currently
existing in the department.
The strategy will continue to emphasise aggressive proactive recruitment
including internship programmes, through induction and orientation systems,
effective retention strategy and other career-enriching proposals that will
make the department a competitive employer of choice. The many workshops
standing unused in the department will be revisited with the aim to convert
them into apprentice training camps for the artisans. We owe it to our youth to
imbue them with a work ethic to make them proud patriots. Many of our
unemployed youth come from disadvantaged backgrounds and communities where the
need for service delivery is dire.
It is in these situations that the labour intensity of the EPWP is beginning
to make a difference. Recently I returned from the official opening of the
Makwane Rural Access Road in Qwa-Qwa. Once a dusty piece of road, the paved
road now snakes through the village, leaving a lasting legacy of a durable,
aesthetic asset in service of the general community. The good thing is that the
community built it with their own hands. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the project is
the best in its category of the Kamoso EPWP Awards, inaugurated in February
this year in recognition of excellence.
The Sakha Abakhi Contractor Development Programme under the Mpumalanga EPWP
recently showcased the work done by the contractors both current and those
graduated under the programme who are given opportunities not only to grow but
to improve and develop their communities particularly in rural and semi-urban
areas. Additional school classrooms are built to absorb overcrowding thereby
promoting the culture of learning and reducing the number of learners under
trees meanwhile creating business and job opportunities for the locals,
complete with portable skills for future references.
To protect the gains we had made thus far, the department has resolved to
focus on the intensification of their Service Delivery Improvement Programme,
commonly referred to as the Zimisele - Give It Your Best service level
turnaround strategy. The implementation of a decision to devolve accommodation
related budgets to the clients and introduce user charges in 2006/07, although
still at an incipient stage, has had a profound influence on the creation of an
effective value chain with client departments. In line with the Public Finance
Management legislation and its precepts, the client departments are now
accountable for both their capital and other budgets including maintenance,
leasing and municipal rates and services.
The initiative to devolve client budgets has been very instrumental in our
campaign to improve the service delivery record of the department. In fact one
of the outputs of our Zimisele Service Delivery Improvement Programme is the
development and implementation of a Client Relationship Management strategy
which will drive the value proposition to our clients while introducing more
business-like management methods. Through the implementation of Zimisele, we
aim to implement a customer-centric service delivery approach to our client
departments.
Unknown too many members is the list of other activities the Department of
Public Works engages in other than just construction projects. Every year the
official opening of Parliament and hosting of state visits is made possible by
dedicated teams of men and women in Public Works who fully understand and live
by the mantra of the organisation: 'South Africa Works because of Public
Works.'
It has been a pleasure addressing you!
Issued by: Department of Public Works
28 March 2007
