Minister seeks assistance with sanitation planning
WATER and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti plans holding an “interactive session” with stakeholders that will come up with working groups to assist him with sanitation planning and monitoring.
Nkwinti told Parliament yesterday that the “interactive session” would be held on November 10 at the CSIR.
“There has been a big emphasis on water in the department and very little on sanitation, hence we have these problems we are experiencing.
“I want that interactive session to come up with working groups that will assist me in planning and also as part of monitoring and evaluation of progress,” he said.
Nkwinti’s department appeared before the water and sanitation portfolio committee to give a briefing on the bucket eradication programme, which incurred R127 million in irregular expenditure due to failure to follow tender processes.
Last week, a departmental presentation was postponed after the department announced that the presenter was new to the department.
Yesterday, Nkwinti said he was not ready to make a presentation to the expectation of the portfolio committee and asked to be given another opportunity.
The ANC’s Daniel Kabini said the committee should grant the minister “an opportunity to get all what he was supposed to get”.
The DA’s Leon Basson also supported Nkwinti’s request to withdraw the report.
“Let’s give the minister the opportunity to deal with (this) the way he like to deal with it and get a report,” Basson said.
Committee chairperson Lulu Johnson said he hoped there would be a direction that gave a clearer view on the bucket eradication programme.