Services backlog a huge problem in Emfuleni municipality

With a multibillion-rand infrastructure backlog, the Emfuleni municipality in the Vaal is struggling to build roads, sanitation and portable water infrastructure due to constant delays caused by service providers and aggrieved community members.

According to Gundo Maswime the executive director for infrastructure development at the municipality, which comprises the peri-urban townships of Evaton, Sebokeng, Sharpeville, Boipatong, Bophelong and Tshepiso, it had become impossible to implement projects without facing delays.

“A number of aspirant subcontractors approach the appointed contractor to request and, in many instances, forcefully impose themselves on the main contractor … unsuccessful [contractors], attempt to stop the project as a ransom to also subcontract,” said Maswime.

In his September 2018 Masters paper in Public Infrastructure Management, Maswime said his research focused on Emfuleni as an example of a municipality experiencing a backlog in the provision of infrastructure.

Poor roads, water and sanitation challenges have limited investment which is perpetuating the poverty and unemployment cycle.

“The results revealed several extremely incompetent firms who were awarded complicated work. While community induced delays are acknowledged as a contributory factor, the solution requires certain attributes beyond scientific interventions.

“This is due to the unique nature of each community and the varying range of methods the community utilises to stop and delay construction projects as a means to lodge grievances,” he said.

Maswime said 78% of the projects profiled in the study had delays of approximately eight months as a result of contestations by aspiring subcontractors.

He said the municipality has a road infrastructure backlog of R5 billion which was reported by the 2014 master planning process.

The sanitation infrastructure backlog calculated through the same process is R2 billion, while the potable water infrastructure backlog is approximately R1.8 billion for the same period.

– gcinan@citizen.co.za

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