Councillor Pule Shayi delivering his speech after being sworn in.
About two months after “shoddy constructed RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme] houses” in Limpopo collapsed during a storm, two pit latrine toilets collapsed and were submerged in water.
The incidents took place in the villages of Mhlaba Cross and Wisani under the Greater Tzaneen municipality last weekend. The Mopani district municipality has since directed the contractor who built them to go back on site and fix them as soon as the rain stops.
Investigations by The Citizen revealed that since 2018, the municipality has spent R8.7 million building 1,094 toilets in the 2018-19 financial year, R101 million on 8,114 toilets in 2019-20 as part of the rural household sanitation programme. The budget for this financial year (2020-21) is R85 million for about 8,000 toilets. Each toilet, according to the municipality, will cost R10,500.
Mopani district municipality’s executive mayor Pule Shayi said in a statement: “We have since visited the two affected villages and their families. We have decided that the contractor responsible for the construction of the very same toilets will return on site as per the stipulations contained in the service-level agreement, which deals with defects and liability warranty.
“We, however, urge community members, who live in areas where these toilets are built to assist the municipality in monitoring these infrastructure projects because they belong to them. Our doors are always open for people to speak to us on issues of service delivery, but also to communicate challenges encountered in any of our projects.
“It is in that spirit that we wish to invite our communities in the district to closely monitor all our infrastructure projects to ensure that we all get value for money,” said Shayi, who is also ANC Mopani regional chair.
“We are pleased with the swift response from our structures on the ground, led by the ward councillor. The Member of the Mayoral Committee [MMC] for infrastructure has already interacted with the affected families.
“Our team of MMCs is always available to support the work of our local structures as we urge our people to maintain close contact with them,” he said.
Ward 22 councillor in the area, Rachel Kgatla, said the families were currently seeking refuge from neighbours until the toilets had been attended to.
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