Wednesday, May 13, 2020
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has identified over 3 475 schools across the country to be supplied with water tanks ahead of the reopening of schools.
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the department has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
The MoU, said Sisulu, is aimed at helping the DBE with all the elements needed for the reopening of schools.
“We are in state of preparedness to assist the Minister of the Department of Basic Education, [to] have the necessary water in all the schools that need water, and how we can provide water tanks and water to those schools,” said Sisulu at a media briefing held at Rand Water Head Offices in Glenvista, Johannesburg.
Funds for the provision of water will come from the DBE.
“The money will come from Basic Education [and] the services come from us. Most of the tanks we have, had been placed in schools because those were safe areas. We will just continue and make sure that we provide some more tanks for schools,” said the Minister.
On human settlements, the Minister said the department has moved rapidly to allocate houses to people who have been on waiting lists for long periods.
Fraud
On Tuesday, Sisulu announced the appointment of Advocate Terry Motau to lead a team of lawyers to probe corruption allegation reports at the DWS.
At Wednesday’s briefing, Sisulu said work has been done on improving the efficient functioning of the department.
In July last year, the Minister committed to clean up, and to bring stabilisation to all nine Water Boards that work directly with municipalities by supplying bulk raw water.
Among the interventions was to establish a Stabilisation Committee that would provide advisory services to the Minister.
The Committee expedited investigations on matters related to maladministration, fraud and corruption, misconduct and improvement on findings of the Auditor General.
Following these measures being put in place, advances were made to tackle fraud and corruption.
During the period of 01 April 2012 to 31 September 2019, a total number of 249 reported cases were investigated.
A total 139 of the cases were found to be true and were referred for disciplinary action while 110 of them were found to be untrue.
Of the 139 disciplinary cases, several outcomes were achieved including:
86 officials were found guilty
14 officials were not found guilty
24 officials resigned
Meanwhile, 11 senior management officials have been found guilty of irregular expenditure and corruption.
Department Director-General, Mbulelo Tshangana said that the department’s financial state is now heading in the right direction.
Tshangana said people who were involved in the implementation of irregular expenditure have been charged, with some being dismissed, given three months suspension without pay, while others have resigned.
“Those that have resigned, we still have a way to chase them, especially if there is criminal activity involved. We’ve opened about 21 cases with the South African Police Service,” said the Director-General.
Vaal Waste Water Treatment Plant
The Minister also gave an update on developments at the Vaal Waste Water Treatment Plant.
“After many years of building module 6, I am delighted to announce that it’s at 98% to be completed. Our engineers have informed us that by end of July 2020, module 6 will be finally complete,” she said.
Work at the plant has been ongoing.
“It’s been a very long difficult job. We’ve been there to look at the process; look at the progress that we are making. We are glad to say today that we have come to the point where we are now commissioning a bigger waste water treatment plant,” she said.
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