There seems to be a glimmer of hope in the struggling North West province, as Premier Lazarus Mokgosi works tirelessly to restore the impoverished, underdeveloped province’s glory.
The premier addressed members of the media on Wednesday in Mahikeng to update them on the progress. The update was on what he has done so far to improve the province’s status after only 100 days in office.
The premier has previously stated that the province’s problems were partially due to a lack of adequate finance. These are lack of infrastructure, inadequate roads, water scarcity, and abandoned projects.
Recent audits bring hope for province
Mokgosi is rolling up his sleeves and believes he is on the right track to improve the province’s standing.
“The 2023/2024 audit cycle which ended on 31 March 2024 serves as a glimmer of hope. This is in comparison to previous financial years.
A total of nine departments received unqualified audit outcomes. Two received clean audits. And only one department receiving a qualified audit opinion with reduced qualification paragraphs,” he said.
Service delivery and unemployment were on Mokgosi’s agenda. However, he did not avoid the contentious topic of scholar transport. Sunday World reported a series of articles in which children from impoverished communities’ struggles to get to school. This due to a lack of scholar transport. The identified areas are such as Tshunyane and Makwassie. In Makwasi, over 20 pupils from Phakedi Primary School had not attended school since March. This is owing to problems with the scholar transport that was supposed to carry them to school.
Scholar patrol challenges to be addressed
“Acknowledging scholar transport challenges, the government has advertised to contract a panel of operators. These will be called at short notice whenever an operator has not transported leaners. There are other measures, including termination of service level agreement. This is whenever there are contraventions,” Mokgosi said.
