Unclear scope of KDM river cleaning project raises concern
Of the 500 jobs, 475 will be for general assistants who will earn R2 400 each for 16 days of work, with the remaining funds split between team leaders and five graduates.
Concerns have been raised about the purpose of a KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) plan to rehabilitate a river in KwaDukuza town.
The Mavivane Transformative Riverine Management Programme (MTRMP) was launched last month, with KDM touting it as a way to help combat climate change and create 500 temporary jobs.
The project was confirmed after KDM won a R1.7-million grant from the KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA).
It is meant to see a cleaning of the river, understood to mostly be waste collection, while proactively preventing against risks associated with climate change.
But with a partially unclear scope of work and KDM needing to pay in an additional R307 000 of council funds, ActionSA caucus leader Nel Sewraj cried foul.
“One has to ask whether this is an employment plan or an environmental plan, because the award was given in terms of natural resource management. As the item reads currently, it is more about employing people,” said Sewraj in an Exco meeting in June.
R1.575-million of the R1.7-million will be used for staff salaries and their personal protective equipment, with another R214 000 going towards tools and training, leaving little left over.
“I’m asking because the item mentions erosion bolsters and other contingencies should they be needed. There is nothing budgeted for that here, and at the end of the day this could fall through and then it will come back to council for more funding,” he said.
Of the 500 jobs, 475 will be for general assistants who will earn R2 400 each for 16 days of work, with the remaining funds split between team leaders and five graduates.
All of the general assistants have been hired from wards 16 and 19, both of which border the Mavivane River.
KDM is paying the salary for the project co-ordinator, which is
R200 000 for the three month duration of work, while also covering a R107 000 shortfall from the grant.
The municipality had not responded to queries from the Courier at the time of print.
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