Members of the Executive Council
Executive Mayor of Sol Plaatje Municipality
Executive Mayor of the Frances Baard District Municipality
Senior Government Officials
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

As Provincial Government we are concerned about the service delivery challenges facing the Sol Plaatje Municipality, and the resultant discomfort and anger amongst residents in the city. For this reason we have been engaging in a series of meetings with the Sol Plaatje municipality and the District Municipality to formulate an immediate intervention to address the service delivery backlogs and challenges.

This intervention has as its primary focus the improvement of quality of services and to put in place a turnaround strategy to speed up and improve service delivery. To this end the provincial government is immediately making available half a billion rand for urgent infrastructure. This is the biggest single infrastructure investment in one year for this municipality. Kimberley is the face of the Province and we must make significant investments to strengthen the city’s capacity to deliver services and generate growth for the entire province.

From this amount R215 million will go towards urgent maintenance work on fighting potholes, sewer and water leakages, as follows:

• R180 million will be used towards roads maintenance to deal with resealing and potholes;
• R 20 million will be spent towards addressing water and sewage leakages;
• An amount of R15 million will be spent on cleaning the city

R 71 million towards Temporary Residential Units for the residents that were affected by the recent rainfalls and floods. Of this amount, R44 million will be spent in the Sol Plaatje municipal area.

R144 million will be allocated to the ground breaking Hull Street Social Housing project.  This will go a long way in addressing the fundamental challenges of human settlement and the Apartheid Spatial planning.

R37 Million will go towards the establishment of 2 933 sites. Out of this a total of 1 314 will have services installed.

R53 million has been signed off for the purchase of land next to the N12 leading to Johannesburg for mixed housing delivery.

In addition a purchase agreement has been signed for the Eskom building to the tune of R 16 million to address social housing needs.

These housing interventions will therefore go a long way in addressing the demand for housing.

We intend to bring the spark back to the City.  This investment will be immediately implemented and we expect the city to be turned into a construction site in which every pothole is fixed and water  and sewerage leakages are restored. We further commit that come the end of this year, there will not be a single pothole in and around Kimberley.

In view of the technical capacity challenges at the municipality, Provincial Government has put in place an Implementation Task Team (ITT) comprising of engineers from the Departments of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs; and Roads and Public Works and the Sol Plaatje and Frances Baard Municipalities. The ITT will also include senior officials from the Provincial Treasury. This team will be convened by the Senior Advisor in the Office of the Premier, Mr Norman Shushu. The three MECs, Vass, Vosloo and Makatong; and the two Mayors Marekwa and Mabilo will give political leadership and will weekly report to the Premier’s Office.

This intervention demonstrates the Provincial Government’s commitment to addressing the social and service delivery challenges faced by our communities. We therefore take this opportunity to make this clarion call to our citizens to protect municipal infrastructure and work closely with law enforcement agencies in reporting any vandalism and destruction of municipal property.

ISSUED BY THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT