A province closing the infrastructure gap

The Bokone Bophirima government is slowly closing its infrastructure gap, with water provision receiving priority but roads proving a massive challenge.

In his State of the Province Address, delivered last Friday in Taung, Bokone Bophirima premier Supra Mahumapelo told the gathering that the Infrastructure Shared Services Model adopted by the provincial government and all municipalities in the province is beginning to bear fruit.

At the end of municipal financial year in June 2016, 16 municipalities out of the province’s 18 managed to spend all of their municipal infrastructure grant allocations. “Three of them received additional allocation based on their good performance in terms of expenditure,” said Mahumapelo. These are the Maquassi Hills Local Municipality, which received an additional R30-million, Tlokwe Local Municipality (R30-million) and Naledi (R29-million). The total amount of allocation for 2016/17 is R 1.6-billion, while expenditure on projects by end of December 2016 is at 35% or R583-million.

Mahumapelo said his office will continue to support integrated planning through assessment of municipal integrated development plans for alignment with provincial priorities.

Mahumapelo said over 350 Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) projects were approved for implementation throughout the province for the 2016/17 financial year, and most will be completed by end of June 2017. He also announced that In the next financial year an amount of R 1.7-billion MIG funding has been allocated for municipalities to implement projects.

The premier’s Infrastructure Coordinating Council has resolved that MIG grants in all municipalities in the province should be utilised to prioritise water and sanitation. “This decision enjoys support of our national cooperative government & traditional affairs department, and hopefully National Treasury.”

Mahumapelo says the provincial government has directed its department of local government and human settlements to work together with the national department of water and sanitation to develop a provincial plan to upscale municipalities with proven capacity to apply for and be granted water services authority status. This will enhance the province’s own revenue raising capability.

The water boards that service Bokone Bophirima province have also been mandated to develop and implement upgraded operations, monitoring and maintenance management systems for both drinking water and waste water treatment plants, to ensure their sustainability and good quality.

The premier made a frank admission in his address when he noted that road construction and maintenance remains a challenge. He estimates that the province requires a total budget of R8.6-billion to deal with our entire road network of 19 786km. “Due to the severe rains and floods that this province has experienced over the recent weeks, this figure will be even higher,” he said. At a media briefing following the address, the premier noted that the province has not budgeted for this amount and National Treasury is unable to provide it at this point. A total of 14 655km of roads are unpaved or gravel, while 5131km is paved or tarred.

Mahumapelo says the department of public works and roads will prioritise gravel roads badly affected by the rains and floods — mainly in villages, townships and small dorpies. “Focus will be put on strategic economic roads that connect villages to villages, villages to townships and villages to small dorpies,” he said.

The premier announced that tenders for two projects have been finalised this year, with contractors already on site. These are the Nelson Mandela Highway from Lichtenburg to Mafikeng, which is under construction for R500-million, as well as a range of key connecting roads such as Dudfield to Gelukspan and Molatedi to Derdepoort, among others.

The premier admitted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to rely exclusively on public funding given pressures on the budget. He said the province is exploring possible public-private partnerships to deal with the effects of mining haulage or heavy mining transport machinery on our roads network.

“We would also have to double efforts to secure private sector funding for the building of roads. The tendency by some of our residents to deliberately damage roads when the demand other basic needs complicates our challenges.” He noted.

Investment in infrastructure

Government, through the department of water and sanitation, funded seven water services infrastructure grant projects to the tune of R290-million in the following municipalities:

Projects funded by the department of water and sanitation

Moretele groundwater developmentR45-million

Rustenburg water augmentationR30-million

Moses Kotane groundwater projectR38-million

Kgetleng River groundwater projectR9-million

Madibeng Water augmentation scheduleR25-million

Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati groundwater

supply across villagesR 77 million

Ngaka Modiri Molema groundwater supply

in different villages schedule 6BR65 million

Bokone Bophirima premier Supra Mahumapelo says for the 2017/18 financial year, the national department will fund six more projects to the tune of R 106 million.

Projects to be funded in 2017/2018 include: