Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - In a battle of ideas during a parliamentary sitting, an EFF member in the Mpumalanga provincial legislature decided to use advocate Malesela Teffo’s foul language to drive a service delivery point home.
During the sitting of the legislature for oral replies on Thursday afternoon, Nomshado Nyembe questioned the seriousness of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Mandla Ndlovu’s department in dealing with sanitation in municipalities.
Nyembe told the legislature that her party was concerned with the sewer spillages across the province, especially around the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality, where millions were spent on sanitation without any desirable outcome.
“In the report of the first quarter of 2019/2020 the department overspent by R38 million. Their reason for overspending was that it was due to restoring dignity to the people of Govan Mbeki. It is painful and embarrassing that a budget worth millions was used and overspent but the situation remains a health hazard.
“Or should I use advocate Malesela Teffo’s words, that after the ‘what-what’ intervention, voters bahlala (emasimbeni – voters are living in sh*) at Govan Mbeki. Where is that human dignity that made them overspend? Those spillages flow into small streams which happen to be the only source of water for farm dwellers, but where is that humanity from the thieves?” said Nyembe.
“Mpumalanga should have its own provincial engineers, its own provincial housing company, its own provincial roads company. The reason is to avoid tenders where money is lost and the waste of spending on engineers but rather create permanent jobs.”
Ndlovu said he understood the EFF’s concerns. “You spoke about (amasimba) but we mind our language always. However, your concern is our concern. We are going to intervene in Govan Mbeki and Lekwa Local Municipality. The governing party is also concerned about paying a lot of money in tenders when we can pay people within the system to do the same work,” Ndlovu said.
Pretoria News