Picture: Michel Bega
It sounds outrageous that almost half a billion rand of taxpayer money has had to be returned to National Treasury because nine municipalities in the North West have been unable to spend it on badly needed infrastructure projects.
Yet, in present-day South Africa, where people are burning and destroying to voice their frustration over lack of service delivery by the ANC government in its various forms, this is the reality.
ALSO READ: R102 million of crumbling Robben Island museum’s infrastructure grant unspent
On the one hand, there is the positive that at least the money cannot be looted by the comrades at those municipalities and that, returned to the fiscus, the funds might find their way to a place where they can do some good.
On the other hand, the unspent money is further proof that the ANC’s deployed cadres are hopelessly inadequate for the task of running our towns and cities. All around us, our smaller centres are collapsing as services fail because of this ineptitude.
ALSO READ: Gauteng health leaves R599m unspent amid hospitals falling apart and unfilled posts
Worryingly, there is no sign that the ruling party is about to back away from its cadre deployment policy, so the right person for the job will continue to be a connected party loyalist rather than a competent expert. And our beloved country will continue to cry.
