Legislature team tours province

NKOMAZI – Members of the legislature took the whole week and dedicated it to the region, as part of their preparation for “Taking the Legislature to the People” in September.

The social and economic clusters respectively spearheaded the visit to key projects in the area; accountability took centre stage in all these talks.

The social cluster, which was led by the chairperson of public participation and petition, Ms Janet Ngonzweni and deputy speaker, Mr David Dube, did not respond kindly to shoddy work and the responsible parties received their share of grilling.

The highlight was the people’s housing process in Steenbok, where the residents complained that the contractors did not complete the building process, and they had to erect the roof themselves.

“It is really sad that some of these contractors are not appointed on merit, and we get to feel the aftermath of all that. Our houses were left unroofed, we had to make means to finish up the whole process because the contractors just left,” said one beneficiary.

Another outstanding highlight that hit the team by surprise was the Emagcekeni Sports Combo in Mzinti, which was referred to as “rubbish”.

The combo only has a plain field, with no fencing, and it has started cracking, even though no one has started using it yet.

“These are funds wasted, funds which are meant to elevate the people. Sloppy work will not be tolerated, and this is a perfect example of one. Was there no inspection during the whole process?

Over R1 million was spent on this project. This is an insult for such an amount of money,” said Dube. The MMC for sports in Nkomazi,
Mr Mvulo Ngomane, tried defending the matter, but it was like preaching to the choir.

“The contractor was unreliable, he did not do the job himself, but had hired other people to do it for him, which made it even worse, because the line of accountability was now lost,” said Ngomane.

The unhappy members instructed the department of public works, to summon the instructor to start all over in building the sports field, and have it fenced as per initial agreement.

“This combo is inside the school for security reasons, which is understandable, however, it belongs to the community members, and they should have access to it without compromising the safety of the school. This work has to be redone, and we expect a report on the Speaker’s desk, no later than July 3,” warned Dube.

However, it was not all doom and gloom, as the team members were met by good news when they visited Mgobodzi for the Imagagane Project, spearheaded by human settlements.

The department has built 50 low-cost houses for the community, for which they received a nod from the members of the legislature. The beneficiaries were inclusive of child-headed families, people living with disabilities, women and older persons.

“I am satisfied with what I see, the beneficiaries are happy as well, meaning we have achieved our goal. The structure looks legit and the houses are well built, kudos to the department for a job well done in this regard,” said Ngonzweni, during their visit to one of the houses.

The week-long visit was concluded in the most critical, yet troubled sector of them all, the health spectrum. Tonga Hospital was the first to be visited by the members on Friday morning. The team found it was short-staffed, which caused a serious backlog.

“Some people have to wait as long as five months for operations, it’s a serious problem in the hospital. We don’t have enough cleaners, and our infrastructure is also not up to standard,” said one of the staff members.

The legislature team vented their anger with the hospital, accusing it of neglecting the little things.

“Your suggestion box doesn’t have a pen and paper, you are basically telling the people to stay away from it. How would you know what people think of your services, or their dissatisfactions?

These are the things that are supposed to help you improve, they might seem like little things, but they are essential to your day-to-day business,” said Ms Gabisile Tshabalala, member of the legislature.

The hospital was also given until July 3, to submit a comprehensive report to the office of the Speaker.

Shongwe Hospital, which was last to receive the visit, received a humongous compliment for its improved cleanliness.

“We should commend the hospital for taking this matter seriously, it is now clean, after a very long struggle with such, this is commendable,” they said.

However, the hospital indicated that working without a CEO had been hard and staff was hoping for it to be fixed soon.

“We have had an acting CEO for over a year now, the post has been advertised and withdrawn twice, there’s still no progress. We are also plagued by the shortage of medicine for our patients, it’s never nice for a patient to be sent back home because there’s no medicine,” said Dr Dikatso Mathole, acting CEO.

The hospital also made sure to use the platform for its benefit, and brag about its success stories.

“We are a district hospital, and we take pride in that, therefore our service delivery should match with the standard. We have increased our staff by adding 19 more nurses, with effect from July.

Four medical officers have recently joined us as well, making it easier for operations to be swift, the retired cleaners have also been replaced,” added
the acting CEO.