LIMPOPO – A payment row involving Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and a prominent Midrand based construction company has now taken a new dimension with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance entering the fray.
EFF Provincial Leader, Jossy Buthane said the project has created much needed jobs for the masses of unemployed people in Limpopo and beyond the province’s borders.
“When elephants fight, the grass always suffers,” Buthane said this week.
He said the impasse between the two grumbling elephant’s means residents of Giyani would have water in the coming donkey years.
The EFF has been chanting slogans in a peaceful protest during the week at the gates of Khato Civils in Giyani in solidarity to the more than three million population of Mopani who have been faced with drought for the past eight years.
Khato Civils, owned by a construction mogul, Simbi Phiri has been involved in a payment spat with Mokonyane’s department since January this year. The company claims Mokonyane’s department owes them money to the tune of R256 million.
In light of this, the company downed tools from 3 January in favour of a go-slow that started a fortnight ago. This after the department made an undertaking to settle the account, CV was told.
The DA recently wrote to the Auditor-General, Thembekile Makwetu to investigate reasons as to why the department of water and sanitation defaulted in paying contractors for major water projects in South Africa.
DA Member of Parliament (MP) Shadow Minister for water and sanitation Heinrick Volmink said the party would recommend for the minister to be fired if she failed to advance convincing factors as to why her department was failing the nation.
CEO of Khato Civils, Mongezi Mnyani the company resumed work with subcontractors on site after the department promised to pay them.
“But two weeks later, we are still waiting with bated breath for the department to honour its payment obligation,” said Mnyani.
This week Mokonyane’s Spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase said the department only deals with consultants and not sub-contractors.
“But it must be borne in mind that we only appointed LTE Consulting on the project and we may only answer to them and not sub-contractors,” explained Ndamase.
“As for pending invoices, the service provider (LTE) is on site and payment due to LTE has been approved and would be processed accordingly”. The CEO of Lepelle Northern Water, Phineas Legodi said Khato Civils was paid R70 million in December.
During her visit to the province last week, Mokonyane blamed Khato Civils for downing tools branding their conduct as “silly, questionable, and left much to be desired”.
“They should have set aside 15% of their budget so that they continue working in case there are payment delays and unforeseen circumstances”
In 2014, President Jacob Zuma assigned Mokonyane to Giyani after residents in the region was forced to drink contaminated water with waterborne diseases that gave rise to opportunistic ailments such as typhoid and cholera.
The water package plant was ageing and the town’s waste spilling into the rivers that was also used by residents for their day to day household needs.
Part of Mokonyane’s assignment was to augment the water schemes in Giyani, construct purification plants and waste Water treatment plants, replacing the ageing pipes with new Polyvinyl Chlorine (PVC) pipes and drill boreholes.
The project was dubbed the Giyani Immediate Water Intervention; started in August 2014 and is expected to come to an end in April this year.
