Leases up for grabs — but black landlords only
The Eastern Cape department of public works is on the hunt for black property owners to lease office space to the government.
MEC Babalo Madizikela said the department wanted to lease 22 office spaces from businesses that were fully black-owned and based in the province.
This is in a bid to transform the property sector in the province, according to Madikizela.
Delivering his policy speech from his office in Bhisho yesterday, Madikizela said in the last financial year about R286m was spent on leases for office accommodation by the provincial government.
“The majority of these leases are in the hands of white landlords.
“Black landlords benefited to a total of R74m; however, interestingly, Eastern Cape African-owned leases were valued only at R14.6m.
“This scenario cannot continue.
“If it does, the poor and marginalised will have nothing to eat, [only] the rich,” Madikizela said.
He said more than R50m had left the province but that they hoped to change this by ensuring residents and business owners in the province benefited from government partnerships.
Madikizela said they were unapologetic about advertising a bid for 22 leases for office space targeting properties that were 100% black-owned.
In December, while tabling the public works committee’s annual report, portfolio chair Nomvula Ponco revealed that an investigation into government-owned buildings in the province found that only 36 out of the 279 buildings assessed were in good condition.
This amounted to 12.9% of the properties in question, which included clinics, hospitals and schools.
Only 229 were considered to be in fair condition, while 14 were categorised as bad.
Yesterday, Madikizela said “perpetually leasing” and heavily relying on privately owned properties by Bhisho could not be a permanent solution.
He said the key to this would be to ensure that the Bhisho Office Precinct was completed in the current term of the administration.
Provincial government departments are scattered between Bhisho, King William’s Town and East London.
The province aims to develop the precinct through a public-private partnership model as outlined in the Public Finance Management Act, for which the National Treasury has provided approval.
“I can confidently claim that all necessary measures have been put in place within the prevailing conditions to close the tender on June 15,” Madikizela said.
“Moreover, the construction of the cluster offices will address this challenge and help reduce the expenditure on leases.”
He also announced that the province would host an Eastern Cape Government Property Development and Investment Conference, which would serve as a catalyst for sector transformation with an emphasis on introducing new entrants.
“We are engaging property investors, developers and development finance institutions to ensure the success of the conference. In addition to this, the conference will present an opportunity for the state to generate the much-needed revenue for the province,” Madikizela said.
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane took the time, while delivering his policy speech yesterday, to thank those working on the province’s Covid-19 front line.
While delivering the office of the premier’s policy speech, Mabuyane said the low mortality rate and number of recoveries in the province was due to the outstanding work of frontline workers.
“We can attribute the low numbers of positive cases, low mortality rate and the growing number of recoveries from this virus to the lockdown regulations that were put in place by our government and, more importantly, to the outstanding work of our front-line workers, the police, doctors, nurses and essential workers in municipalities and in government who risk their lives every day to provide critical services to society.
“To them we are hugely indebted,” Mabuyane said.
With 2,748 positive Covid19 cases as of Monday, Mabuyane said while the pandemic had claimed lives in the province, more than 1,300 people had recovered from the virus.
“In the midst of all this unrelenting pandemic there is a silver lining.
“Our people are fighting back against this virus.
“We now have 1,335 people who have recovered in the Eastern Cape, among them our colleagues such as provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga, and this should assure our people that the coronavirus is not a death sentence.
“However, it is still deadly and that is why we should all adhere to social distancing, wash our hands regularly with soap and wear our masks at all material times,” Mabuyane said.
Mabuyane, who has faced calls to act against some members of his cabinet, said everyone should remain united in the war against the virus.
“The bigger prize for all of us is to save as many lives of our people as possible during this pandemic.
“We will win this war against this virus.
“We might not win it tomorrow, we might not win it next month and we might not win this year, but ultimately our victory against this virus is certain,” he said.
Mabuyane said his office would continue with the province’s small-town revitalisation projects which included Port St Johns, Ingquza Hill, Umzimvubu, Ndlambe, Sunday’s River Valley, Elundini and Raymond Mhlaba municipalities.
He said additional towns and municipalities had been added to the development programme.
“Planning work for development of these new towns is scheduled to start in this financial year,” Mabuyane said.