NCOP Provincial Week - MEC Mamabolo Leads Site Visits to Infrastructure Projects

Today, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) continued their Provincial Week at the Department of Infrastructure Development project sites, led by the MEC for Infrastructure Development and CoGTA, Jacob Mamabolo. Members of Parliament are conducting site inspections of projects in Ekurhuleni and Tshwane to assess the current state of Barcelona Primary School, Transoranje Learners with Special Education Needs (LSEN) and the Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Tshwane. MEC Mamabolo took the opportunity to announce measures taken by the DID to improve project delivery through the Infrastructure Delivery Platform (iDEP), “We have implemented this digital delivery platform to enhance efficiencies across the Department's operations. The iDEP system will make the DID more data-driven and data-centric, ensuring projects are completed within cost, time, and quality constraints”.

The NCOP Provincial Week theme is “Confronting the challenges facing the timely delivery of viable Public Infrastructure to communities”. The NCOP Provincial Week is a significant oversight initiative aimed at evaluating the status and plans for addressing incomplete community infrastructure projects across the country. It aligns with Section 42(4) of the Constitution, which tasks the NCOP with representing Provincial interests on a National level, providing a platform for dialogue on pressing Provincial issues.

Early in the week, the NCOP delegates received a briefing from the Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi on the state of infrastructure projects in the Province. Premier Lesufi said that the incomplete infrastructure projects in Gauteng is a pressing issue with social and financial consequences, “In this financial year, we have allocated R12.7 billion across the Departments to address infrastructure in its totality. The Province faces an R1.1 billion shortfall to fund the identified incomplete infrastructure projects”. Premier Lesufi noted community disruptions, business forums, vandalism and procurement inefficiencies are some of the issues hampering the progress of projects. He assured the NCOP that the Province would strive to get the basics right, from planning to maintenance, by ensuring that all stages of infrastructure development adhered to core principles aimed at preventing costly delays and overruns.

This week the NCOP accompanied by MEC Mamabolo visited the DID projects located in the West Rand and Sedibeng Region. These included the New Simunye and Rus-Ter-Vaal Secondary Schools and Kopanong Hospital.

Tomorrow the NCOP will meet with Gauteng Provincial Government leadership to report back on issues emanating from the 2024 Provincial Week and consider the Provincial draft report to the NCOP.

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