Tendering flawed

Makhotla Sefuli

Gift Rampai

Matjhabeng local municipality

Free State Province

06 July 2022

 

#tenderingflawed

 

Moadimole   Development is the company that was awarded a multi million contract to install new pipelines for the refurbishment of the old and decaying sewer system.

 

The total cost of the project was a whooping forty five million,the project couldn’t even last for it’s full duration because within a few months the main contractor has abandoned the site.

The only phase of the project that has commenced was the digging of the trenches that were left open.This in itself poses a serious danger to the young ones who take joy in playing hide and seek in those trenches but oblivious to harm that may befall them.For the petite little thieves who scapper for scrap metal everything was in abudance.

 

This development was supposed to take place in ward 16 as part of the special presidential projects of sanitation and water reticulation,particularly for the places that have been neglected for over ten years.This place has been without water borne ablution facilities for all this time.This matter was first handled by the previous ward councillor Mrs Selina Meli and incurred by the new one Mr Itumeleng Molula.Everything was on site including the site office and material for the work to commence but nothing saw the light of day with the labour left in limbo about their wages.

 

The new councillor did manage to bring back the project to functionality but the irony is that the contractor who abandoned the project those years before was the one who was appointed again this time around .This whole project seems to be ominously rigging of corruption because within two months the same contractor disappeared again without completing the project and with the same workers again still lamenting about their wages.

The corrupt practices of our local SMMEs colluding with politicians to loot every penny that destined for the poor is characteristic of this project.This leads to one questioning the integrity of the project based on the few factors to point to.

The community was not taken into confidence about the following as required by legislation and FPIC

*Who’s doing the work?

*How much is the cost?

*What is the duration of the project

 

One of the key factors that is lacking in this whole saga is transparency because the community is not informed about anything,yet they are the ones whose lives are going to be affected.

No one has been held accountable for the poor administration and malpractice surrounding the project.No one has explained why the same contractor was appointed twice and why the same mistake had repeat itself.