OPINION Don’t neglect upkeep

ONE OF the weaknesses of our governments in the past 24 years has been neglect of maintenance of existing infrastructure.

Administrations at central, provincial and local levels have been eager in the democratic age to share the benefits of inclusive government with apartheid’s neglected millions.

Nobly so. But this has often come at the expense of existing facilities, from roads and hospitals, to water, schools and many areas of government responsibility.

The authorities are now finding out that this neglect and the decay it inflicts means exponential costs. Assuming that these administrations have their wits about them, overlooking maintenance in favour of other expenditure is a calculated decision. It is also an inevitable mistake.

Eskom, and the damaging power outages, are perhaps the best known instance of this. The government had been warned, by its own energy minister, of calamity ahead. Yet it ignored this – and the price some years later was devastating.

Then there is also petty squabbling.

Take the water crisis in the Western Cape. When Day Zero was punted by the DA as a very real probability and the public responded not only with admirable discipline, in many cases, but also with criticism for the ruling party in the province and city, Premier Helen Zille blamed the ANC-run national government.

But the national water department hit back, claiming that the neglect of water infrastructure that Zille complained about, and the tardiness of the government to do anything about it, was in actual fact the responsibility of her own provincial authorities.

This type of petty political point-scoring did the DA no good in the eyes of the voters, who may make it pay at next year’s elections.

All governments should acknowledge that the state of the infrastructure and buildings is not sudden, but an accumulation over the years, where capital budgets have ignored necessary repairs.

They should realise at the same time that the tendency to neglect upkeep in favour of new projects is folly. There must be a balance in allocation, even if it necessitates a frustrating slowdown of the new and spreading resources slower and thinner.