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Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane says the fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the public service are the bank notes of ordinary South Africans floating into the sewers of government wastage.

Elder Statesman Ndungane said that the expenditure, revealed in the Auditor-General’s report yesterday, is a “shameful desertion” of the freedom for which countless South Africans died in the apartheid years.

In a statement today, Ndungane said:

• “There are constant reports of our people being denied proper health services in our hospitals, yet the KwaZulu/Natal Department of Health incurred irregular expenditure of R2.5 billion and the Mpumalanga Department of Health of R1.9 billion;
• “Countless people in both our rural and urban areas lack proper sanitation, yet we are told that the Department of Water and Sanitation incurred irregular expenditure of R1.7 billion.
•  “Surprisingly, the province with arguably the best road infrastructure in the country, Gauteng, was reported for its Roads and Transport Department incurring irregular expenditure of R2 billion.
• “The rotten cherry on the top, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA) incurred irregular expenditure of R13.9 billion.

“Words almost fail one at the way in which public servants squander our money. The mind boggles at how their political masters and mistresses get away with this neglect of their duties. In so neglecting their responsibilities, they are proving themselves grossly useless,” he said.

The Archbishop said that, if one were to interrogate the AG’s report, one would no doubt find many other illustrations of abhorrent deviances, which no self-respecting government would be able to defend.

“One has to ask: What are the political masters and mistresses doing while all this incredible waste of money is flushed down the public service toilets?

“And then they wonder why students, civil society and others get hot under the collar about why there can’t be fair and free education for all. Regrettably, the answer for many will be that there can be no such education because, figuratively speaking, the bank notes that should be used for such education are disappearing into the cesspool of fruitless and wasteful expenditure.”

Issued by on Quo Vadis Communications cc on behalf of Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane