Public Protector dialogues with
Opposition Parties
Friday, 07 September 2012
Public Protector Adv Thuli Madonsela wrapped
up the 2012 Annual Stakeholder Consultative Dialogue with a
meeting attended by leaders and representatives of the
opposition parties at Public Protector House of Friday 07
August 2012.
During the meeting, the Public Protector gave a
comprehensive preliminary feedback on the issues raised by
the people and emerging themes on the service delivery
matters that were the focus of the Stakeholder Dialogue and
public hearings.
The Public Protector Stakeholder Dialogue and public
hearings were held under the theme: “Joining hands to
end maladministration and ensure responsive service
delivery: Focus on RDP houses and regulatory gaps in the
illegal conversion of panel vans into taxis.”
The process sought public inputs on a systemic investigation
into RDP housing and another on alleged regulatory failures
regarding the illegal conversion of panel vans into taxis.
Members of the public were also asked to make
representations on other service delivery matters that
affected groups or communities.
On the RDP housing, the Public Protector summarised
complaints into five categories, namely, Planning,
Procurement of houses, Allocation of houses, Post Allocation
Concerns and General Observations. Compliance with the
Development Facilitation Act, which includes approved bulk
infrastructure plans before construction, emerged as one of
the key concerns. As a result, many settlements were built
without basic facilities such as water, sanitation,
electricity and roads.
“In one province we found settlements without water,
sanitation and electricity for up to 8 years. Not very far
away, there was a settlement with only toilets that had
running water but no houses or occupants,” she said.
The public Protector singled out the implementation of the
People’s Housing Programme as having given rise to a lot of
complaints regarding planning, procurement and allocation of
human settlements. Many complaints related to allegations of
houses being smaller than approved plans and structurally
defective houses that need to be demolished.
“A lot of procurement complaints point to endemic irregular
and even corrupt procurement practices and fraud, including
false billing in relation to quality assurance and
invoicing,” she said.
The long wait for RDP houses, particularly by older persons,
child-headed households and the so called back room
dwellers, was highlighted as a major concern regarding
allocation. The Public Protector also mentioned allegations
of double and multiple allocations of houses, corrupt
allocation and illegal sale of RDP houses, allegedly by
councillors and public servants. The issue of disability
friendly RDP houses and standardisation of the basic
specifications for an RDP house given the fact that the
subsidy amount is uniform were also highlighted.
Post-allocation problems primarily related to failure to
provide title deeds and illegal sale of RDP houses, mainly
by the beneficiaries themselves. On the issue of general
observations, the Public Protector highlighted several
policy choices that need to be reviewed. Key among these was
the question of the provision of adequate housing as
envisaged in section 26 of the Constitution to persons from
rural areas that already have homes in those rural areas but
have temporarily migrated to urban areas for work.
The Public Protector indicated that feedback received on the
illegal conversion of panel vans seemed to point fingers at
government, car dealers and banks. She further announced
that she was planning to meet SANTACO on this and other taxi
industry concerns that SANTACO had raised.
She went on to provide an overview of other service delivery
concerns that had dominated the public hearings. These
included rural development; fisheries; IDP concerns, mainly
relating to lack of transparency and deviations;
infrastructure such as roads, bridges , schools, storm water
drainage, hospitals and police stations, particularly in
rural areas and new townships; health services, particularly
medical supplies and adequacy of health professionals;
police conduct, conduct of traditional leaders, land claims,
irregular sale of state land and illegal occupation of
private and state land.
The Public Protector’s overview also touched on alleged
governance failure in the management of public resources
such as community farms and mineral rights. She advised that
her office was already investigating some of these
allegations.
The Public Protector told the gathering that during the two
month stakeholder dialogue she had advised Municipal
Leadership, Provincial Legislatures and Provincial Executive
Committees to develop action plans to address, immediately,
those complaints where they concede there were state wrongs
and present these to her office, leaving the her to focus on
investigating complex matters. She applauded leaders at
various levels of government for embracing the spirit of
joining hands and agreeing to develop and implement the
agreed action plans. She also commended those that had
commenced processes to deal with systemic RDP housing
administrative deficiencies and the panel van fiasco.
The RDP challenges are classified according to planning,
procurement, allocation and post allocation. Regarding
planning, there is violation of the DFA and no proper
planning with regards to infrastructure, roads, water and
sanitation. Regarding procurement the service providers had
failed to procure goods and often got paid for shoddy and
incomplete work.
The Public Protector also alluded to the constitutional and
legislative mandate of her office. She outlined the approach
of her team to the mandate, likening the role of her office
to that of the Makhadzi in Venda culture. She said
her office’s key purpose is to give people a voice when
direct dialogue between them and the state fails while
operating as a second eye for those entrusted with public
power with a view to mending relations between them and the
people.
The Public Protector received constructive feedback on her
briefing and also on her office’s services. Speaker after
speaker confirmed that the Public Protector’s role is to
enhance oversight in pursuit of public accountability as an
important pillar of constitutional democracy. The parties
particularly applauded the Public Protector for the
proactive promotion of good governance, particularly the act
of giving organs of state an opportunity to remedy problems
without an investigation. The parties committed themselves
to joining hands with the Public Protector to end
maladministration as it impedes effective service delivery.
The Public Protector committed herself to a three phased
reporting process, involving a Voices and Views Report at
the end of September; a provisional report before the end of
the year; and a final report shortly thereafter.
The Public Protector said: “The Voices and Views Report
will be a preliminary report without any findings as we will
not have investigated by then. That informal report will
simply present what the people said and what we saw during
each inspection in loco that we undertook.”
In the coming months the Public Protector will proceed with
the systemic investigations on RDP housing and the illegal
conversion of panel vans, factoring in the outcomes of the
public hearings. Other systemic service failure matters that
came up during the public hearing and not resolved through
action plans submitted by organs of state will be assessed
with a view to possible investigations. The Public Protector
will also continue to meet selected groups such as banks and
cell phone companies and to conduct outstanding inspections
in loco.
Members of the public are encouraged to continue to send
information and complaints on RDP Housing, Panel Vans and
other service delivery matters to the Public Protector at
0800 11 20 40 or
Registration2@pprotect.org Issued by:
Kgalalelo Masibi
Spokesperson for the Public Protector
Tel: (012) 366 7006
Cell: 079 507 0399
E-mail: kgalalelom@pprotect.org
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