The department had to answer questions on its budget for the 2019/2020 due to be tabled in the House this month. MPLs and members of the Public Accounts Portfolio Committee expressed their concerns about the department’s financial woes. The department's allocation for the new financial year amounts to more than R630 million.

The cash-strapped Free State Development Corporation also falls under this department.

The Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Neels van Rooyen, said the committee is going to decide what to do because the answers to their questions were not satisfactory. He said the tabling of the department’s budget might even be delayed until the department can account. Committee members were firing questions about projects, the mandate of the department versus that of the Free State Development Corporation, and indications that millions get budgeted for the maintenance of resorts and nature reserves while they are still in a dilapidated state.

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