Gralio Precast will not be blacklisted, says city manager

THERE will be no blacklisting of controversial company Gralio Precast from receiving further municipal tenders. eThekwini City Manager, Sbu Sithole announced in a media release on Friday that Gralio Precast would not be blacklisted as it was a separate legal entity from Rectangle Property Investments, the company involved in the construction of the mall which collapsed earlier this week.

“We need to separate matters. There are two legal entities involved here. Firstly, one company is building an illegal mall oThongathi. This company (Rectangle Property Investments) will have to face the music in terms of blatant disregard for the order of the High Court which ruled they cannot continue to build without the requisite planning approvals from Council. As a matter of fact, Council is now looking at options not only of bringing an action fora Contempt of Court decision, but also the possibility of an order for the owner to demolish the collapsed structure. There is already a precedent in this regard in Lester v Ndambe Municipality (a Supreme Court of Appeals) decision that a municipality may, under certain circumstances, order an owner of a building that has been constructed without approvals and persistent disregard of the laws of the country, to demolish it. In these matters, the court will exercise its discretion and taking into account all the relevant facts brought before it,” he said.

Sithole said the municipality had awarded Gralio a contract under the following context. “In December 2011, long before the Manase Report was released, a tender for Phase 1B of Cornubia Housing was advertised. Upon assessment of the tender by the Bid Evaluation Committee and subsequently by the Bid Adjudication Committee, the contract was awarded to Gralio as the most responsive tenderer. However, because this tender was above R10 million, it had to be approved by the City Manager. However, the City Manager rejected the award and Gralio appealed the decision to the Municipality’s Appeals Authority, which overturned the City Manager’s decision upon the emergence of new evidence which included a letter from the NHBRC praising the quality of Gralio’s work. This was contrary to an earlier NHBRC report which had criticised Gralio’s work and formed part of the Manase Report findings,” he said.

“Despite the findings of the Appeals Authority, the City further attempted to render a non-award, which Gralio defended legally. After exhausting all the options for a non-award, it was considered prudent to proceed with Gralio. This long standing matter, dating back to October 2011, was settled in October 2013 and is not a new award,” he said.

Sithole said the statement released by the DA on Thursday was “”xtremely misleading considering the background above. In fact, it is tantamount to political opportunistic posturing that has become synonymous with the DA’s cheap electioneering tactics. Councillor Mncwango is misleading the DA and the public with his unfounded statements. He is supposed to know better as a member of the Executive Committee,” he said.