Rob contractors expected to be paid

NELSPRUIT – The two contractors at Rob Ferreira who are owed money for work completed at the hospital, are expected to be paid the outstanding funds.

According to a source close to the hospital’s ongoing revitalisation project, the builders were told on Monday to submit invoices for all the outstanding money on the particular phases. They were made to understand by the Independent Development Trust (IDT) that they were to be paid, according to the source.

The IDT is the implementing agent for the revitalisation project. It was appointed by the departments of health and public works. The initiative consists of various phases. Of these, revamping work has been suspended on three general wards and a rehabilitation centre, and they remain incomplete.

The contractors told Lowvelder that work would only commence after payment had been made and guarantee provided that funds were available for the remainder of the work. They also exercised their lien (the right to keep possession of property belonging to someone else until a debt owed by that entity is discharged).

The builders had taken the matter of non-payment for completed work to court. According to the premier’s office, they were owed R19,9 million and R12,1 million, respectively.

The premier, Mr David Mabuza met with them and government officials at the hospital last week. He asked that all parties resubmit all their tender documents to the director general for re-evaluation.

In response, COPE said the party found this strange. “It indicates that the problem at the hospital is so huge that even the MEC for public works, Ms Dikeledi Mahlangu, cannot deal with the problem without Mabuza’s intervention. Here is yet another situation that affects the patients at the Rob Ferreira Hospital where we understand that they end up sleeping in corridors because the contractor locked certain wards due to the non-payment of money,” said Mr Riot Hlatshwayo, provincial head of communications for the party.