KZN public works boss to discuss services with professionals forum

The PPF is an organisation founded in Johannesburg in 2013 and focuses on how to better the lives of the middle class.

DURBAN, May 28 (ANA) – Newly-appointed KwaZulu-Natal member of the executive council for Public Works and Human Settlements Jomo Sibiya will on Saturday meet officials from the Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF) to discuss service delivery in the province.

The PPF is an organisation founded in Johannesburg in 2013 and focuses on how to better the lives of the middle class. It draws its members from various sectors of the South African economy.

Saturday’s meeting will look at the role of professionals in ensuring efficiency and speed in implementing social infrastructure projects, Sibiya said in a statement on Friday.

“I commit to (utilising) the intellectual power-base available in this province and the country to ensure that we turn KZN into a land of prosperity,” he said.

The province has a total infrastructure budget allocation of R16.449 billion (US$1.2 billion), of which more than 50 percent (R9.514 billion) has been set aside for existing assets, according to the National Treasury.

Non-infrastructure received around R2.2 billion while new infrastructure assets were allocated R1.166 billion. This was announced earlier this month following the tabling of provincial budgets.

Sibiya said the R1.166 billion allocated towards new infrastructure would go towards building social upliftment facilities like schools and libraries.

“This massive investment is packaged in such a way that we defeat the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality,” he said.

“The money will be used towards education, the building of schools and health facilities and renovations of existing infrastructures as well as the building of new structures for the betterment of society.”

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa