Ekurhuleni’s R12m sidewalk project ‘a sky-high rip-off’

Ekurhuleni DA ward councillor Simon Lapping has raised serious concerns about the city’s tender process, calling for third-party forensic audits on all awarded contracts.

This follows a discrepancy in figures, sparking suspicions of overbilling on public projects.

The cost of a sidewalk paving project on Zuurfontein Road in Kempton Park raised serious red flags for him.

Sidewalk should have been R750k

“After a question in council on the cost of the one kilometre stretch of paving noted it cost R12 million to build, I was shocked,” said Lapping, who said he immediately investigated and consulted with construction firms to ascertain the real cost involved in laying a short piece of bricked paving.

“It came to less than R1 million, based on quotes by local companies,” he said.

Wayne Bruun of Eticon Construction met The Citizen on site to quote independently on the job.

“At retail cost, the bricks can be purchased at R3.20 each, and the kerb would have cost an additional R40 000 to lay,” he said.

With labour added at a premium rate and a 42% markup on cost, he said it would be impossible to charge more than R750 000 for the stretch of paving at the high end, because “there’s just no way that you can cook the books on this. It’s impossible to get away with such a costing”.

Yet, questions posed to city spokesperson Zweli Dlamini revealed that the cost also included an incomplete section of the Kempton Park Rea Vaya rapid bus transport system.

“The value relates to the construction of the Harambe dedicated trunk route, road widening, resurfacing including stormwater upgrades,” said Dlamini.

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Different figures suggests something is ‘afoot’

Lapping was fuming. “How is it possible that the same municipality can answer questions in council and provide incorrect figures and then, when the media asked the same question, serve up something completely different?”

He said it brings the integrity of the entire governance system into question and further questioned how many times councillors have received misreported fact.

“How many questions asked, over the years, were answered in such a way that either showed shocking mismanagement, or perhaps drew the wool over our eyes?”

Based on his own investigation and Bruun’s quote, Lapping said that despite the lower price it remained a sky high rip-off as taxpayers were still purportedly defrauded and charged more than what it should have cost to construct the pavement.

On a spreadsheet provided by Dlamini, it indicated that the paving cost was in fact quoted at just under R2 million, not R12 million.

It was still much more than what Bruun had quoted for the same piece of work. Ekurhuleni’s own internal guidelines suggested in a costing guideline document that the city should pay a maximum of R420 per bricked pavement square metre.

This amounts to a cost of around R690 000, closer to Bruun’s initial estimate.

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Sidewalk tender almost three times city’s limit

Yet the contractor, Sihle Civils, won the tender at almost three times as much as the city itself allows.

“And it’s not been completed, because the contractor has not been paid yet. It’s a safety hazard to top it all off,” said Lapping.

Dlamini said the tender was awarded to the contractor and that nothing out of the ordinary was at play.

“If there is any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of anyone such information must be brought forward so that there is thorough investigation,” he said.

Sihle Civils, the company contracted to do the job, does not have contact details or an address listed on its website and the proprietor’s Linked-In profile is inactive. The Citizen was unable to contact the contractor for comment at the time of publication.

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