The chairperson of the national assembly water and sanitation portfolio committee has lashed out at officials of the water and sanitation department and its entities for being too slow in encouraging black business with government.
At a session of the committee on Wednesday, ANC MP Mlungisi (Lulu) Johnson told top officials of the Water Research Commission, the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and senior staff of the department including director general Margaret-Ann Diedricks that as far as he knew there was only one “white” company involved in supplying chemicals to water treatment plants, Fin24 reported. While Johnson named the company privately afterwards, he told MPs that when a company had a monopoly over a service “they can be very arrogant”. Companies which enjoyed a monopoly knew that if their products weren’t used, they would have to be imported. He said it was important for the various procurement and employment arms of the department to ensure that new black companies were encouraged to compete in the various elements of the water and sanitation department’s activities. Diedricks took up the chairperson’s point but noted that promoting black industry was driven “largely by the dti (Department of Trade and Industry)”. She acknowledged that in the water sector “and for the full value chain of the water sector… it is true… there has not been much transformation”. She reported that the department, which is responsible for dams and weirs, used “huge amounts of cement”. In that sector there were “three or four big companies” which provided cement.
