This is according to DA Shadow MMC for Roads in Ekurhuleni, Bill Rundle.
“The huge underspend on the metro’s roads became clear in the report on the financial and performance results for the first quarter of the 2014/15 financial year, tabled in the monthly Council meeting last week,” says Rundle.
Rundle says of the 92 capital projects listed in the report, the metro has allegedly only begun work on 14 of them.
“This follows months of denials by the ruling party that six suspended officials are responsible for work in the entire department coming to a virtual halt.”
According to Rundle, this department, which is one of the very foundations of economic development, is dysfunctional to the point of imploding.
“Stalled projects, diesel shortages, staff vacancies, unspent budgets, poor planning, management and budgeting, complete the sorry picture of a department which the ruling party swears is functional.
“It is simply unacceptable that the ruling party has not acted swiftly to ensure that it appoints contractors to paint road markings and repair potholes at the very least, while it finalises the legal process which prevents it from embarking on large capital projects.
“The government merely pays lip service to its claim that attracting business and investment to the so-called Aerotropolis of Ekurhuleni is its highest priority, while it fails abysmally to even keep basic existing infrastructure in good shape.” – @IschkeBoksburg
