Tight security for state administrators sent to fix the rot in North West
Technocrats have received threats
The lives of top technocrats sent by cabinet to troubleshoot governance problems in North West are at risk.
This after they received threats‚ apparently from people opposed to the national intervention plan.
The government has now resolved that it should provide full-time security to the team of seven caretaker administrators‚ as well as their support staff‚ until their mandate is terminated.
Details of the beefed-up security and threats were disclosed yesterday to an ad hoc committee of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) that is overseeing cabinet’s intervention in the province.
The intervention is at the behest of an inter-ministerial task team (ITT) led by Minister in the Presidency‚ Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and her Director-General Mpumi Mpofu.
The ITT‚ which has taken over the administration of the entire North West following a cabinet resolution that followed months of violent service delivery protests‚ reported to the NCOP that it was worried about the safety of the civil servants who had been seconded from national departments to help turn around the governance situation.
Mpofu said the threats – along with disputed outstanding payments to service providers – were among the challenges facing the team.
Dlamini-Zuma said she wanted the threats to be properly looked into. “I’m not saying in particular who is making the threats because we don’t know. If we knew already, we would’ve gotten people arrested.
“If they threaten, it’s a problem that cannot be left unchallenged. It could also be that if I had a contract and it’s being stopped‚ I may also make threats as well,” she said.
Mpofu said the ITT was making good progress‚ with particular focus on irregular expenditure and “restoring the credibility of supply chain management practices with government departments”.
Mpofu said they were also turning things around in the provincial health department where there was poor contract management and “irrational processes‚ such as paying monthly maintenance for idling equipment”.
She said there were disputes between the provincial public works department and service providers over outstanding invoices‚ with the legitimacy of some of them being questioned by the intervention team.
“Despite this short period [of intervention]‚ we really believe we’ve stabilised governance and service delivery challenges in the province ...
“We’ve even put the spotlight on the major issues that in the findings were of concern‚ the issues around irregular contracts‚ irregular expenditure [and] the audit findings which have been running over a number of years ...” she said.