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Eastern Cape Local Government MEC, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, says municipalities have a strategic and moral responsibility not to compromise the quality of infrastructure projects built for the benefit of communities.
The MEC is hosting a two-day meeting of the Provincial Municipal Infrastructure Forum in Port Elizabeth where underexpenditure of infrastructure grant funding is under the spotlight.
In a statement on Tuesday, Qoboshiyane lashed out at contractors who do shoddy work as well as councillors and officials who have interests in private companies.
"Corrupt owners of some construction companies do shoddy work because they are only committed to money not quality, hence some of our early infrastructure projects collapsed," he said.
"Councillors and officials with interests in private companies must declare their interests to avoid conflict of interests. We cant allow a situation where officials decide on the same tenders they are eyeing for their private companies."
"We can't construct infrastructure that collapses less than 10 years of construction and yet when we look at some infrastructure constructed during colonial era, it is still standing with no crack while ours collapses at a whim," he said.
Qoboshiyane said government's "strategic commitment is to meet universal access to basic services by 2014."
He said for this to happen "we must ensure that all municipalities that can achieve original targets by 2014 do so. Secondly all municipalities that can potentially achieve original targets must be supported to do so."
"Thirdly, municipalities that cannot meet original targets must develop concrete action plans to progressively achieve targets on an annual basis with the objective to achieve the main target as soon as possible."
Qoboshiyane said "under expenditure is not an excuse" and that "all municipalities must spend their grants effectively."
