CONSTRUCTION at the new Albertina Sisulu Fire Station has come to a standstill as workers have not been paid for two months.
The construction of the new fire station, which is scheduled to be completed by June 2018, began in November last year after a sod-turning ceremony led by Ekurhuleni mayor, Clr Mzwandile Masina.
However, it has been tools down for a few weeks now as 19 contract workers (including a security guard) – who were hired by Shota Engineering, the company hired by the metro to handle the fire station construction – have not been paid for March and April.
The workers, many of them from around Kempton Park and Tembisa, did not enjoy the Easter weekend like many other people. In fact, due to the fact that they have not been paid, some of them have even been evicted from their homes.
“Abaningi bethu siqashe ama-room, manje sekukhona namadoda aqoshiwe ngoba singakwazi ukukhokha,” said one of the men. (Many of us rent back rooms and some of them have been kicked out).
“One of the men’s children has also not being going to school because he hasn’t been able to pay transport fees. The children live back home and can’t walk to school because there is a dangerous river they need to cross,” another man added.
The workers and ward councillor Jaco Terblanche confirmed to EXPRESS that to date, workers had not yet signed employment contracts.
According to the company hired by the metro to do the construction, Shota Engineering, they haven’t received any payments from the metro.
EXPRESS spoke to the owner of the company, Lara Mulaudzi, over the phone on Friday afternoon at about 2.30pm. When asked why the workers have not been paid, he first said there was an issue with the payment certificate.
“As we speak I am trying to sort out their payments,” he reassured. “I am trying to organise some money to pay them by the end of the day.”
He then told EXPRESS he would call an hour later. He called back at 3pm and again repeated what he had said before.
“The reason we haven’t been able to pay the workers is because the company (Shota Engineering) has not been given money by the metro to pay the people,” he said, then dropped the call.
However, the workers said Mulaudzi told them on April 11 before the Easter weekend that he had received a cheque from the metro and asked the workers to give him seven days to pay the money.
Mulaudzi eventually stopped answering EXPRESS’s phone calls.
The company’s office number is constantly on voicemail and calls never go through. The workers have also said the number does not work.
According to information given to EXPRESS, there was some sort of mix-up with the payment invoice. Mulaudzi allegedly submitted the documents for payment too late and incorrect information was also submitted with those documents, which delayed the process even more.
On March 31, the workers received a brief letter informing them they would not be paid due to “unforeseen circumstances of financial challenges”. It does not give a date for when payments will be made, but only states payments will be made “in due course”.
The letter was signed by Thammy Mabapa, the company’s safety officer.
Terblanche said he had a meeting with Mulaudzi on Wednesday last week and he (Mulaudzi) had promised to make the payments on Friday by noon.
When EXPRESS contacted Terblanche at about 2pm to inform him no payments were made, he called Mulaudzi, who also told him, “he was still sorting out the issues and would make the payments by the end of the day”.
“I insisted that the workers had to be paid and the contracts should be sorted out as soon as possible. He told me he was still ‘working on it’,” Terblanche explained.
Didi Macomo, the community liaison officer (CLO) hired for the project, said she was also in the dark and had been told the same story.
“On Wednesday Jaco said he had a meeting with Lara and he promised the workers would be paid by Friday. I passed this information on to the men and told them to go home and come back on Friday,” Macomo explained.
The workers have been going to the site every day in the hope of getting their money, even though they have stopped working.
Macomo said Mulaudzi told her he had problems with the invoices.
“It is really not fair what is happening to these poor men, who have families. They all have mouths to feed; they are not just working for themselves. Some of them have even been kicked out of the rooms they rent in Tembisa.”
An enquiry has been sent to the metro.
By Monday morning, the workers had still not received their salaries.
EXPRESS once again called Mulaudzi on Monda using a different number, and he answered. When asked for the reason why salaries hadn’t been paid, he said: “I gave you my position already on Friday and I think that is sufficient.”
When EXPRESS tried to ask further questions, he said he would call back and hung up the phone.
EXPRESS called him back but there was no answer. Mulaudzi had not called back by the time of going to print.
Situated at the corner of Highveld Road and Bosch Avenue, the fire station is the result of years of requests from the community and businesses, which was included in the Integrated Development Process. Just over R100-million was budgeted for the project.
