AfriForum’s Pongola branch directed a request to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to investigate the tender process and contracts relating to the repairing of Martin and Piet Retief Streets in this town. This follows after the branch recently asked the uPhongola Local Municipality to provide an action plan of how these streets would be repaired, but the Municipality refused to heed the request.
The project should apparently have been finished in May, but the subcontractor withdrew from the project as a result of non-payment. Local businesses subsequently suffer significant losses because the roads to and from their businesses are mostly inaccessible.
“The unfinished streets are eroded and becoming more dangerous by the day. We are worried about the safety of motorists and residents,” says Marilda Schoombee, member of AfriForum’s Pongola branch management.
“We often see that contracts are awarded to friends of officials or to unfit people, which result in the use of sub-contractors. This results in municipal infrastructure funds being under pressure – and opportunities for fraud being created,” says Eugene van Aswegen, AfriForum’s Provincial Coordinator for KwaZulu-Natal.
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