Rabie Ridge business owners contracted to work on the City of Johannesburg’s Temporary Relocation Units (TRUs) project held a meeting recently after allegedly not being paid for nearly four months.
Chairman for the Ward 80 Stakeholders and Greater Midrand Business Forum, Sydney Monaise said the project had come to a halt after claims by the main contractors that they had no money to continue.
“Contractors had to get paid by the Housing Development Agency, only then would they be able to continue with the project. Contractors cannot move if the main contractors are not moving,” added Monaise.
Monaise said because the main contractors have not been paid, it had resulted in labourers not being paid which has brought everything to a standstill.
He added that the reason the project was introduced was to deal with the issue of Covid-19. It was to ensure that people in crowded households could move into these temporary homes to prevent the spread of the virus. “The project was supposed to have been done by 4 October last year… The vaccines are already here and the project is still standing. We are not sure anymore whether the project is still serving the issue of Covid-19 social distancing or something else.”
One of the contracted small business owners, Andries Thamaga of Reatlegile Security Company, said he could not afford to hire qualified security personnel to guard the construction site because of small businesses that had not been paid.
He was concerned that he may be fined if the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority was to visit and inspect the site.
Read the full response from the City of Johannesburg MMC for Housing Mlungisi Mabaso and the Housing Development Agency here.
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