Water minister flush with plan to end toilet bucket system
WATER and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti yesterday announced that his department was organising an “interactive session” with stakeholders next month to take stock and come up with plans for the bucket eradication programme.
“I have arranged for an interactive session with the sector on November 10 at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research because I want to have input from stakeholders on their plans, particularly on sanitation.
“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,” Nkwinti said.
He made the statement when his department appeared before the Water and Sanitation Portfolio Committee to give a briefing on the bucket eradication programme.
Last week, a departmental presentation was postponed after it was announced that the presenter was a new appointment in the department.
Nkwinti said they were not ready to make a presentation up to the expectations of the portfolio comittee and asked that they be given another opportunity to do so.
“I would like us to collectively chart the way forward and make sure when we say we are going to make time X, that is done. When we say we are to spend amount X, that must be done,” he said.
“As things are now there are no plans I have seen myself and I’m not satisfied at all with that hence I call these partners to come, including municipalities, so that we can work together and develop these plans.”
The ANC’s Daniel Kabini said the committee should grant the minister “an opportunity to get all that he was supposed to get”.
The DA’s Leon Basson also supported Nkwinti’s request to withdraw the report.
“We must get a conclusion on the way forward on this. Let’s give the minister the opportunity to deal with it the way he would like to deal with it and get a report,” Basson said.
Committee chairperson Lulu Johnson said he hoped there would now be direction that gave a clearer view on the bucket eradication programme.
“These are questions we have been raising as the committee.
“We also had to raise pertinent questions ourselves as to whether, indeed, we shall be able to achieve what is expected of the department in March 2019.”
Johnson also said another meeting would be convened before Parliament went into recess at the end of November.
Last year, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu found that the programme incurred R127 million in irregular expenditure due to improper tender processes.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) had in its submission to Parliament stated that the department did not know exactly how many bucket toilets remained in use in the country.
“A significant amount of overspending has occurred, translating to gross maladministration. There is no explanation as to why the programme continues despite overspending and lack of results,” Outa said .
“The department has missed its own deadlines and the government has failed to eradicate one of apartheid’s most degrading legacies,” reads the Outa submission.