AfriForum brings PAIA application against the DWS about Cuban engineers

AfriForum has brought an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), 2 of 2000, against the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), to acquire the work permits of 31 Cuban engineers employed by the DWS.

This follows after it came to light that Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Water and Sanitation, had given these Cuban engineers an increase of R11,3 million amid rumours that the Department is bankrupt.

“AfriForum is going to compare the experience and qualifications of the Cuban engineers to that of South African engineers who could rather have been employed to do the same quality work at an affordable, market-related remuneration package. South Africans are struggling to find work, while foreigners are appointed at such a high cost,” says Chris Boshoff, AfriForum’s Project Coordinator for Environmental Projects.

The Cuban engineers’ contracts apparently would have expired at the end of 2017, but has now been extended to June 2018. The money that was spent on salaries and travelling has also increased costs with millions of rands.