Johannesburg – Parliament this week hauled the North West department of education over the coals over its infrastructure spending plans.
The ad hoc committee on section 100 intervention in the North West province demanded that the department furnish it with its infrastructure plan for the 2021/22 financial year.
China Dodovu, the committee’s chairperson, raised concerns that the department continued to lose its infrastructure budget to other provinces due to underspending.
“It is unacceptable for a rural province like the North West with high poverty levels and poor school infrastructure to return over R100-million of its budget to the National Treasury. A detailed plan will ensure that this is curtailed,” said Dodovu.
Dodovu said it was unacceptable that pupils in the province were subjected to substandard classrooms where “there is no conducive environment for teaching and learning and small construction businesses in the province lose out on infrastructure projects that are key to economic development and creation of employment opportunities”.
The department last year lost out on R225-million in infrastructure grant, which was returned to the treasury and reallocated to Mpumalanga.
Cabinet invoked section 100 of the constitution on May 23 2018, placing several provincial departments under administration, including the department of education.
However, direct interventions in the North West will be suspended by the end of the 2020/21 financial year.
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