Bhisho office precinct project about to put down roots
A Bhisho office precinct project, which has been in the pipeline for almost a decade, will finally get off the ground and save the provincial government hundreds of millions of rand in leases, public works MEC Babalo Madikizela announced on Tuesday.
Delivering his budget and policy speech at the provincial legislature, Madikizela said R1.9bn of their R2.6bn budget for the 2020/21 financial year would go towards infrastructure projects.
Once realised, the long-awaited precinct, which the government has promised to build since 2012, will see six government departments vacating private offices in East London and King William’s Town and relocating to the capital, freeing millions of rand in the process.
In the last financial year the provincial government spent about R286m on leases for office accommodation, he said. This needed to change.
“Key to this will be ensuring that the Bhisho office precinct is delivered in this term of government and I can confidently say that all necessary measures have been put in place within the prevailing conditions to close the tender on June 15.
“Construction of the cluster offices will address this challenge and help reduce expenditure on leases.”
The Dispatch reported in June 2017 that plans for the facility were delayed by a lack of bulk water and sanitation infrastructure in the area.
Madikizela said the government wants more state-owned properties to be leased to black business owners. He wants black landlords to get the biggest slice of the R301.7m allocated for office accommodation, and highlighted a call for transformation.
“Most of these leases are in the hands of white landlords. Black landlords control only R74m. However, interestingly, Eastern Cape African-owned leases were valued at only R14.6m. This scenario cannot continue unabated. If it does, the poor and marginalised will have nothing to eat. It is for this reason that we have advertised a bid for 21 leases for office accommodation.”
He admitted the department had been struggling to meet targets on revenue collection.
“We have since put measures in place which are beginning to yield positive results. These include enlisting the services of the state attorney to help with enforcing the conditions of lease agreements and dealing with illegal occupations.
“Equally we have strengthened our internal capacity to manage and maintain our debtors. The process has started in Mthatha and East London. In the current financial year, we will roll this out to the rest of the province,” he said.
The MEC announced that the Amatola Hotel in Bhisho was now owned by public works. A plan was being developed to generate revenue from it.