By Thapelo Molefe
Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba has called on provincial government departments to abandon bureaucratic delays and focus on delivering basic services, warning that residents are still struggling with water shortages, damaged roads, unemployment and poverty halfway through the administration’s five-year term.
Addressing the Executive Council Budget Lekgotla at The Ranch Resort in Polokwane on Wednesday, Ramathuba said the 2026 Local Government Elections had sent a clear message that residents wanted immediate and visible improvements in service delivery.
She said the administration, which took office in June 2024, had reached the halfway mark of its term but was still struggling to translate its plans and budget allocations into tangible improvements in people’s lives.
“The people have spoken loudly and clearly at the polls. They are demanding immediate, visible and tangible improvements in basic service provision,” she said.
Ramathuba questioned why communities living near major provincial dams, including Nandoni and De Hoop, continued to experience water shortages despite the dams holding significant amounts of water.
“How do we explain to our people that major provincial dams, such as Nandoni and De Hoop, remain brimming with water for years, yet communities living right on their doorsteps have no access to clean, potable water?” she asked.
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She said government had become trapped in administrative processes that failed to produce results, adding that the remaining two and a half years of the administration should be characterised by implementation rather than explanations.
“Too often, our administration appears trapped in endless, circular explanations that yield zero results. We do not seem to know how to turn the tide because we are locked in a culture of bureaucratic paralysis,” she said.
The Premier also raised concerns about the province’s spending patterns, saying significant amounts of money continued to move through government systems without translating into meaningful services.
She said provincial departments had failed to meet critical half-yearly performance targets despite having the necessary financial and human resources.
According to Ramathuba, departments had attributed their poor performance to procurement delays, inadequate project management and a lack of funding.
However, she said these issues fell within the responsibilities of accounting officers, chief executive officers and chief financial officers.
“Let me state clearly: these factors fall entirely within the mandate of Accounting Officers, CEOs and Chief Financial Officers,” she said.
She added that oversight committees had identified a lack of consequence management, ethical leadership, accountability and work ethic as contributing factors to government’s poor performance.
Ramathuba said the province needed to move beyond planning and ensure that resolutions adopted at previous government planning sessions translated into completed projects and improved services.
She pointed to the provincial unemployment rate, which declined by 1.8 percentage points to 30.2% in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
Although the figure was below the national unemployment rate of 33.7%, she said it remained unacceptably high.
“What bold, disruptive economic interventions are we executing to turn this situation around?” she asked.
Among the priorities she outlined was accelerating the development of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (SEZ), particularly the finalisation of township establishment in its southern section.
She also called for the province to move ahead with the Fetakgomo Tubatse SEZ following its approval, saying the project should use existing infrastructure and partnerships to create employment opportunities.
The Premier further called for the implementation of the Limpopo Professionalisation Action Plan and Digital Transformation Roadmap, as well as the Provincial Audit Improvement Action Plan for the 2026/27 financial year.
She said provincial entities also needed to become more effective in supporting economic development.
On local government, Ramathuba called on the Office of the Premier, the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs and Provincial Treasury to provide strategic support to municipalities as newly elected councils are established.
She said municipalities needed to prioritise water provision and ensure that their Integrated Development Plans were aligned with the District Development Model.
Ramathuba also highlighted several infrastructure projects requiring urgent attention, including the Provincial Theatre, which she said must be completed by June 2027.
She said the Executive Council had already approved an operational implementation plan to ensure the theatre could begin functioning as soon as construction was completed.
The ZCC Interchange project was another priority, with Ramathuba saying the province must ensure that construction is completed within the projected 18-month timeframe following the recent handover to the contractor.
However, she criticised the continued delays surrounding the Thohoyandou Intermodal Facility, saying repeated interventions and meetings had failed to result in its final handover and opening for public use.
“This administrative inertia must end today,” she said.
On education, she called for an improvement in this year’s Grade 12 examination results and urged the Department of Education to begin preparations for 2027, with particular attention to Mathematics, Science and Technology.
She also called for urgent support for the establishment and rollout of the Sekhukhune Mining Beneficiation Academy, saying it would help address technical skills shortages in the mining sector and enable young people to benefit from the province’s mineral resources.
With the country approaching the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, Ramathuba also called for stronger interventions against gender-based violence and femicide.
She said government needed to strengthen social protection systems and ensure that law enforcement agencies and community structures worked together to hold perpetrators accountable.
The Premier also warned that climate change and extreme weather required a shift from responding to disasters after they occurred to investing in disaster risk reduction.
She specifically raised concerns about the potential impact of El Nino, saying funds allocated to disaster management must be spent effectively before communities were affected by disasters.
Concluding her address, Ramathuba said the success of the provincial administration would ultimately be measured by whether residents experienced improvements in their daily lives.
“The time for talk, excuses and endless paperwork is over. The next two and a half years belong to rigorous implementation, implementation and implementation!” she said.
