Huge underspending holds Eastern Cape back again

THE Eastern Cape underspent on several of its conditional grants during the first quarter of the current financial year. To date, the province has spent only R192 million of the R1,25 billion it has been allocated for housing in the current financial year.

In the last financial year, the Eastern Cape forfeited R500 million of its conditional grant for housing that was allocated to other provinces able to spend the money and still did not spend what was left.

The Community Library Services Grant has also been underspent with only R3,6 million of the R9.2 million allocated for the first quarter actually spent.

The HIV/AIDS Life Skills grant administered by the Education department is also under-spent with R2,6 million of the first quarter allocation of R7,1 million paid out to date.

• Full report in The Herald tomorrow.

Treasury officials are party stooges: Pillay

More from the Pillay Commission

Wide-eyed Wonder!

Officials from the Provincial Treasury were also on Judge Ronnie Pillay’s hit list.

“It is noteworthy that some of the officials presently in Treasury have been in such positions or within Treasury for a long time. Some of them display an undoubted loyalty to leading political figures who played an important part in what has gone by.

“Even some of those officials who now find themselves in other departments but were within the Treasury department in the past seem to owe their loyalty to the aforementioned political figures.

“The reason(s) for this is, at best, unclear.”

Thank goodness it's Thursday in Bhisho

It’s any early start on the final lap of the four-day Bhisho session. Kick-off is at 10am although there was wholesale confusion about the programme.

One MEC asked me yesterday how I knew the Friday session has been cancelled and he does not know. I couldn’t be honest there were people listening. For as long as I can remember Bhisho sessions are set down for the full five days and somewhere along the line Friday is cancelled and we start early Thursday.

It’s a regular charade.

Today we start with a debate on Public Works followed by Roads and Transport, Safety and Liaison, Social Development, Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, the Legislature and finally the passing of the provincial budget.

It’s set to last nine hours – so with a break for lunch that should take us to between 8 and 9 tonight. Bet we’re out of there by 6pm.

Where is the Pillay report?

Premier Nosimo Balindlela came under attack from the African Peoples Convention this afternoon, with MPL Zingisa Mkabile stating that the failure of the Premier to release the Pillay Commission report into corruption was “unacceptable.

“Where is that report? We voted money for it. It really borders on disrespect for this House that this and the many other reports have not been tabled in this Legislature.

“We are not going to see the reports and the comrades on the right (the ANC) are going to keep quiet. It is a serious situation.”

Calling Balindlela’s administration “a lame duck” Mkabile said it was not surprising that there was no service delivery in the Eastern Cape “because it is clear that the heart does not function”.

As far as the branding of the province was concerns, Mkabile said if the Eastern Cape continued to perform the way it was then this would be “spin-doctoring – there is no point in talking about branding until we have resolved the problems connected with education, health and many other areas”.