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Mabuza has been answering questions at the national provincial council, his first appearance in parliament after a long period of poor health.
On Thursday, September 3, 2020, Vice President David Mabuza responded to questions at the provincial national council, his first appearance in Parliament after a long period of poor health. Image: @ DDMabuza / Twitter
CAPE TOWN – Vice President David Mabuza told Parliament that the government did not know that money set aside to fight the COVID-19 pandemic would be stolen.
Mabuza has been answering questions at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), his first appearance in Parliament after a long period of poor health.
Auditor General Kimi Makwetu released a damning report this week detailing the embezzlement of funds intended for COVID-19 relief.
The Economic Freedom Fighters asked Mabuza if it was wise to divert resources from much-needed services to combat the COVID-19 pandemic only to have the money go to waste.
He responded and said: “When we made the decision to redirect resources to strengthen our fight against COVID-19, we did it in a way to try to protect our people and to make the health system ready to face any problem. eventuality.
“Unfortunately, we never knew that some of these funds would be stolen along the way.”
Mabuza defended the allocation of resources to face the pandemic.
“I keep insisting that it was the correct decision, but we must as a government, as a society, as a people, we must uproot these elements within society, within the government, which are corrupt because corruption can destroy what is good for the country” .
Mabuza said that the pandemic has also shown that corruption is now prevalent in both the private and public sectors, as those who benefited from the tenders included businessmen. “
HOPING ESKOM DIVISION COMPLETED IN TWO YEARS
Mabuza said the government expects the division of Eskom into three separate divisions to be completed within two years.
He said restructuring a company the size of Eskom is no easy task.
It is his first appearance in Parliament since ill health caused him to miss two oral reply sessions at the national assembly in July and August and another at the NCOP in July.
The question arises a day after Eskom announced not only stage two, but the load shedding of stage 4.
The vice president apologized for the continued interruptions in the power supply: “We must apologize for the continuous interruptions in the power supply, this is due to the maintenance challenges, people will understand that dealing with a very old fleet and from time to time when it presents many problems. . “
But he said he was confident that the pressure on the grid would ease as the new Medupi and Kusile power plants came fully online, Medupi hopefully by the end of the year, as well as independent power producers.
Eskom is breaking up into separate generation, distribution and transmission entities, and members of Parliament wanted to know how long this would take: “The schedule may take until 2022, I hope by that time the rest of the entire entity will be completed, in three entities “
Mabuza has reiterated that there is no intention to privatize Eskom.
LOOK: Oral responses from Vice President David Mabuza to the NCOP
Oral response of the Vice President of the National Council of Provinces https://t.co/A72DhjDDHH
– David D Mabuza (@DDMabuza) September 3, 2020
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