The ongoing failure of the Department of Public Works to manage infrastructure projects is costing the people of the Eastern Cape essential services and economic opportunities. Across the province, construction sites stand abandoned, projects remain incomplete, and public funds are wasted.
The Education Infrastructure Grant, meant to fund school projects, is set to underspend by R74.114 million due to contractor terminations and procurement delays. These failures leave schools and communities without critical infrastructure while driving up costs, forcing taxpayers to fund re-tendering and rectifications.
The DA is calling for a centralised blacklisting database to bar contractors who abandon projects, deliver substandard work, or fail to meet contract obligations. It is unacceptable that the same unreliable contractors continue receiving tenders despite repeated failures. This must end.
This mismanagement has resulted in unfinished infrastructure, delayed maintenance, and a sluggish procurement process that continues to stall service delivery. The delayed submission of invoices from service providers further exposes administrative dysfunction, compounding the financial inefficiencies.
The department’s failure to conduct proper financial due diligence before appointing contractors has led to contracts being terminated mid-project, leaving schools, communities, and businesses without the facilities they were promised.
Beyond the immediate impact, these failures result in significant project cost escalations, as delays and abandoned sites lead to additional expenditure for rectification and re-tendering. This, in turn, hampers the department’s ability to roll out future infrastructure projects, depriving more communities of the development they urgently need.
I have submitted parliamentary questions to the MEC for Public Works, Siphokazi Lusithi, demanding transparency on contractor selection, project failures, and measures to prevent further collapses. I will also table a motion to formally establish a provincial blacklist to ensure accountability and protect public funds.
A formal, publicly accessible blacklist will ensure that those who waste public funds and compromise service delivery are barred from future government contracts. The people of the Eastern Cape cannot afford continued financial waste and neglected infrastructure.
The DA will continue to push for a system that ensures public funds are spent effectively, contractor performance is rigorously monitored, and infrastructure projects are completed on time and within budget. Service delivery must take priority over departmental inefficiency and failed governance.