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16 July 2014 - 02:01 By Penwell Dlamini
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DUMPED: Nomvula Mokonyane
DUMPED: Nomvula Mokonyane
Image: Sunday Times

With several Gauteng government departments in disarray, service delivery has been put on the back burner.

The department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs yesterday presented its proposed budget for the 2014/15 financial year before the portfolio committee on human settlements.

The department was merged with the department of human settlements in 2009.

The arrangement failed and two departments have since been split.

The department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs has a relatively small budget of about R340-million yet is meant to be a key player in boosting local government.

But the department plans to spend R252.1-million - 75% of its budget - only on staff salaries and a further R24-million in procuring and refurbishing office space for employees.

This leaves little of the budget available for service delivery.

Member of the portfolio committee, Michael Madlala, raised concerns about the limited funds for service delivery.

"The budget is not ambitious enough; the R340-million is only a drop in the ocean ."

In 2009, the then premier of Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane, reconfigured several entities and introduced a new department - the department of infrastructure development.

She also merged the departments of health and social development, though this union also failed and the two entities split before the end of Mokonyane's administration. The taxpayer is expected to carry the costs of these aborted enterprises.

President Jacob Zuma, in his second term of office, has also revised a variety of departments.

He introduced the Department of Small Business Development, merged Correctional Services with Justice and Constitutional Development and then moved the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities into the Presidency.

The changes cost taxpayers R36-million and his cabinet will cost an estimated R1.3-billion by 2016.

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