Mokonyane in pay spat as firm downs tools over R256m debt

A payment row between Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane and a Midrand construction company has taken on a new dimension, with the EFF and the DA entering the fray.

According to EFF provincial leader Jossey Buthane, a project the department now owes money for had created much-needed jobs for the masses of unemployed people in Limpopo.

“When elephants fight, the grass suffers,” Buthane said yesterday.

He said the impasse between the two elephants now meant the residents of Giyani were only likely to have water “in many years to come”.

The EFF had been peacefully protesting midweek at the gates of Khato Civils’ Giyani branch in solidarity with the more than 3 million population of Mopani, which has been without water for the past eight years.

Khato Civils, owned by construction mogul Simbi Phiri, has been involved in a payment spat with Mokonyane’s department since January, claiming it’s owed R256 million.

In light of this, the company downed tools from January 3 but later returned to work after the department made an undertaking to settle the account, The Citizen was told.

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But it has subsequently embarked on a go-slow that started a fortnight ago when the payment was not received.

The DA yesterday urged Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu to probe the reasons behind the department’s default.

DA MP and shadow water and sanitation minister Heinrich Volmink said the party would recommend that the minister be fired if she failed to advance convincing factors for why her department was failing the nation.

But Mokonyane’s spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase yesterday said the department only dealt with consultants and not subcontractors.

“As for pending invoices, the service provider [LTE] is on-site and payment due to LTE has been approved.”

– news@citizen.co.za

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