Frans MPhekwane from Mawa is a Community Liaison Officer of the Jopi-Mawa-water reticulation project which built water taps for Mawa block 8, 9 and 12.

Mphekwane says that he is not impressed with the work that the contractor has produced.

“They have not used the right material to build the street water- taps slabs, they should have used concrete, river sand and cement instead they replaced the river-sand with clay soil.

Within months of being built many slabs have already cracked and a part of Mawa block 12 still does not have water from the new taps,” said Mphekwane.

Councillor Harold Mafokwane said that all the broken slabs have been fixed and also claims that Mphekwane was a trouble maker he never co-operated with him and the contractor.

“I personally went to check on the slabs and found that indeed they were not of good quality, then I went back to the committe and the contractor managed to fix the the broken slabs.

The are also allegations that Mphekwane is the one who intentionally broke the slabs and I believe that this is a political vendetta,” said Councillor Mafokwane.

Mphekwane says that the allegations against him are not valid as the first two people he spoke to were about the poor quality of the slabs Mafokwane and the project manager who both ignored his contribution and they went on with project.

Letaba Herald went to Mawa to check on the project and we found that on each block they were slabs that were poorly built.

The herald also found two spots where the contractor failed to properly replace the tar road which was dug during the project when they merged water pipes.

The document which Herald has in its hands, states that the estimated contract amount of the project was R 9 723 862,10 and the commencement day of the project was November 17 2016 and anticipated completion date was April 30 2016 and completion date was May 6 2017.

“We are aware of Mawa block 12 water challenges, currently the water set-up is a temporary one as they are not getting the water supply from the Jopi-Mawa-Ramotshinyadi but from Nkambako until everything is sorted out,” said Neil Shikwambana, Spokesperson of Mopani District Municipality.

We drilled few boreholes which acts as a current water supply to the area and we are still busy with the main reticulation lane.

One of the Mawa residents who was also a general worker in the project confirmed that they did not use river-sand for the slabs they would just use clay soil to build the project and it was not a problem with contractor.

Councillor Mafokwane also added that a practical hand over of the project was handed over to the community on July 24, which gave the residents the right to access water from the new tabs.

“All I want is quality work for the people and nothing else, I approached all the stakeholders about the shady work and no one came to my aid, hence I have ran to the media,” Mphekwane added.

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