The party’s Ismail Obaray says he has submitted a letter to MEC Norman Sushu.

"I have also sent a letter to the MEC to request an explanation from him as the political head on what has caused this and why they have not spent the funding. So once I have received his reply then hopefully I will be able to take it further from there." *Ismail Obaray

According to Obaray, the department’s first quarter performance presentation last week revealed that it has only spent 13,2% of its budget for that period, with the norm being 25%.

He says the department almost lost out entirely on R7 million of the conditional grant set aside for the Drought Relief Scheme last year, but was lucky enough to receive a rollover for the new financial year. He claims, however, that this has still not been spent to provide relief. 

The DA said in a statement the department spent only 8% of its conditional grant money. It further stated that the progamme for sustainable resource management came off the worst, with the department having spent only 3,6% or R5,8 million of the annual budget of R160 million. 

OFM News is still awaiting a response to a query submitted to the department.

Sabrina Dean/OFM News