Key posts vacant: MEC
GAUTENG MEC for Roads and Transport Jacob Mamabolo has admitted that his department has failed to fill 85 key positions despite the fact that all those positions were fully funded posts for the past financial year.
Mamabolo made the confirmation during his written replies to questions in the Gauteng provincial legislature by DA spokesperson on roads and transport Evert du Plessis.
Du Plessis asked Mamabolo how many funded vacancies there were in the department, and entities that were not filled for 2020/2021.
She also wanted to know the reasons for not filling the posts, including whether such failure had an impact on the provision of service delivery to affected communities.
Du Plessis also wanted to find out if any consequence management was executed against the accounting officer.
In his reply, Mamabolo confirmed that 85 funded vacancies were not filled, saying the lack of recruitment of the 85 vacancies was due to the organisation review project that was currently under way in his department.
“Capacity constraints in the supply chain management impacted on the delays in the awarding of tenders, appointment of professional service providers.
“This impacted on the actual service delivery items such as grass cutting on provincial roads, road maintenance and timely completion of infrastructure projects,” Mamabolo said.
He said there were no consequences for the accounting officer, saying “the rationale for not implementing consequence management is due to the fact that the organisational structure review process has not yet been completed”.
Despite his written response, Mamabolo over the weekend launched a R500-million grass cutting project which saw 19 companies awarded tenders. A total of 1000 jobs were created and the initial project began at the R21 Albertina Sisulu Road.
Commenting on Mamabolo’s responses, Du Plessis said Gauteng residents were forced to use roads that were in very poor condition with potholes everywhere, roads that are in dire need of resurfacing and road verges that are not properly maintained.
“This is because there are currently 85 funded vacancies in the department that are yet to be filled. The lack of consistent and regular maintenance on our roads puts the lives of our motorists at risk on a daily basis, and many motorists are flagged as high risk as they constantly claim from their insurance due to accidents caused by the bad condition of our roads.”
Du Plessis said that maintenance work must begin in earnest to ensure our roads are always in tip-top shape. “That no consequence management for this took place again highlights that no political will exists in the Makhura-led administration to ensure service delivery takes place,” she said.