http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/04/17/province-loses-track-of-buildingsThe province's department of infrastructure development has been given a tongue-lashing in a quarterly oversight report because it could account for only 9800 of the 29000 properties under its supervision. The department is responsible for constructing and maintaining government buildings.
The department is already racing against the clock to clean up a massive backlog of dodgy leases held by businesses and government officials.
Yesterday, Thulasizwe Simelane, the department's spokesman, acknowledged the mess and said an experienced company was being appointed to help the department.
The report, compiled by infrastructure development portfolio committee chairman Joggie Boers, blasted the department's inability to fix its asset register, despite previously appointing consultants to help it to do so.
"[This] is unacceptable. There are many registers as government continuously issues tenders to look for service providers who can assist in terms of [verifying] public property."
In one of several examples last year, The Star reported that the department's property portfolio was in such a mess it had bought a R12-million building in the Johannesburg CBD next to ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, and demolished it, leaving the empty piece of land for the ruling party to use as parking.
The infrastructure department said at the time it was not aware the ANC was using the property illegally. - Times LIVE
It is useless to wonder how such a thing could happen - that is how corrupt and inefficient our government is. Even if there was some answer, there is a tacit acceptance of the abuse that is being perpetrated. Every person you speak to will go only so far as to throw their hands in the air and state that "this is just the way it is - there is nothing to be done about it". Too bad that everyone thinks this and therefore it is a self fulfilling prophecy, since no one will actually do anything.
I suppose some do try, some are honourable, some want what is best - but some doesn't seem to be enough, for the flames they kindle stutter and die before making any real changes. Maybe they are labelled as "extremists", or as "communists" - and because of this they lose whatever credibility they may have had. Maybe they died, from whatever cause. Maybe they were taken over to the dark side. Maybe they just don't know how to make a change - this is one of the main problems in every cause taken up: no one knows how to think any way other than the way they have always thought, which is in itself the product of this broken system of ours.
Every cause is tainted by our stubbornness and by our small mindedness. We try to put out a fire by following the instructions that were given to us, even though this action has no effect on the flames. How can we hope to make the world better if we refuse to even acknowledge that there is another way to view our social problems? How can we hope to find solutions when we will not even consider that we must think in a way that is contrary to the thinking we were taught?
If we continue to look at the world and our live through a red lens, how will we ever see the other colours that constribute to the entire picture? We refuse to see or investigate what it is, exactly, that is causing our societal issues. It seems like we don't really want to know. All of our actions and our words are indications of the simple fact that we just don't want to know.
We don't want to know about the practices that enable our economic system to be semi-functional. We don't want to hear that the people who are killing rhinos by carving their horns off of their faces while they are still alive are doing it to survive, so that they can feed their families. We don't want to know that the owner of a series of factories that has indentured/slave workers doesn't mind what he is doing, because it enables him to be rich and live a comfortable life. We don't want to know that the deforestation and burning of native animals with fire is done in order to provide us with the luxury and frivolous products we have become addicted to. We don't want to know the true price of the lives we are leading.
If we felt and witnessed the pain of each animal, insect and plant that was destroyed in order for the palm tree to grow which provides the palm oil in a bar of soap, then we would no longer use soap. That's what we'd like to believe anyway. The truth is that we do know, we just don't think about it, which helps us to continue believing and trusting in our apparent innocence.
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