Scopa chairperson, Themba Godi, said that a hearing scheduled for Tuesday with the Department of Water and Sanitation on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, had to be cut short.
He said the this was because of the failure of the department's officials to respond to the questions posed by Committee members.
Godi says the Department was appearing before Scopa for the third time after failing to respond to questions at two previous hearings.
"Appreciating that this Department has a long history of mismanagement, yet it is a very crucial and critical Department in the sense that its failure would impact on the entire country, especially rural areas that still do not have water infrastructure or even access to water," Godi said.
"Our country is a water scarce country, meaning that how we manage water is very, very critical for our livelihood and development," he added.
Godi told Algoa FM News that it's worrying that Minister Nomvula Mokonyane had left a Department that has completely collapsed.
"That Department is where Public Works was a few years ago, it is where Home Affairs once was and it is our contention that she did not deserve the horizontal movement that she got after collapsing such a critical department such as this one," Godi charged.
"The Public Broadcaster that she has been moved to (as Communications Minister), is nearly getting out of the woods and certainly needed a much, much steadier hand than the destructive hand that she had proven herself to be in the Department of Water and Sanitation," Godi said.
He also said that Scopa would be opening a criminal case against the department because of the R2.9 billion rand overdraft that the department took with the Reserve Bank.
"The Committee has also resolved to engage with the National Treasury on the overdraft," Godi said.
