24th November 2009

It has taken a global economic meltdown to bring the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal to the realisation that the province, beset by high levels of poverty and unprecedented fiscal overspending, cannot afford to build a new complex to house its provincial Legislature. 

The new parliamentary complex, conceived by the previous ANC provincial government, was to be the third available venue in KwaZulu-Natal to house the Legislature after the Legislative Assembly buildings in Ulundi and the historic Natal Parliament in Pietermaritzburg. 

"The IFP, which has opposed the new parliamentary complex from the outset as an extravagant diversion from more pressing challenges faced by the province, welcomes the announcement by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance Ina Cronje that the project has been effectively put on hold," said IFP MPL Roman Liptak, who serves on the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature's finance committee.  

According to MEC Cronje, the provincial government will make a final decision on the new parliamentary complex on 31 January 2010, but the province's current multi-billion rand fiscal over-expenditure and the government's all-out effort to arrest it suggest that the project will be shelved.  

"The finance committee, which was previously led to believe that the venture was in the hands of the provincial Treasury, today discovered that the new parliamentary complex has in fact been the Legislature's own pet project, with senior Legislature staff in charge of bidding procedures," said Liptak. 

The project, which has so far cost the South African taxpayer R7.1-million in its preliminary stages, could in the end have cost at least R600-million, which is the conservative estimate of the amount spent on the new parliamentary complex in neighbouring Mpumalanga.  

"The IFP welcomes the decision to rethink a project that would not have benefited the poor, who should be on the receiving end of government largesse in KwaZulu-Natal. It is a pity that the ANC's change of heart was not brought about by the genuine needs of the electorate but rather by the province's fiscal crisis," said Liptak.
 

Contact:
Roman Liptak
078 302 0929