Roads not up to standard

EMJINDINI – The supervision and credibility of those who are awarded tenders are being questioned following the poor workmanship on a recently constructed road in Extension 9.

Clauses that are supposed to protect Umjindi in terms of warranties also seem to be missing from the contractor, Rea Dira Project, which was not held responsible when the road collapsed a few days after construction.

According to the tender process, the municipality must hold back a retention fee of a certain percentage of the contractor’s final payment. This must be done for 12 months following the satisfactory completion of the job.

During this period, a contractor could be called upon to effect any repairs due to observed defect or poor workmanship, and provide material at no extra cost to the council.

But residents of the section claim council workers conducted the repairs.

Rea Dira Project was responsible for the construction of the tarred road, which is reported to have cost R10 million. But it has since deteriorated within a very short period of time.

The residents have attributed the substandard work to “kickbacks”, lack of consultation and poor, or lack of, supervision by municipal officials assigned to monitor the appointed contractors.

“The government and municipality have only good intentions. When decisions are made at provincial government, they are done in good faith but the people entrusted to carry out the jobs, are the problem,” said Tom Nkosi, one of the residents.

Nkosi accused some of the officials at the tender board and council of accepting bribes, and questioned why certain contractors were repeatedly being hired despite their reputations of substandard work.

“It is not proven, but it is obvious there is some sort of corrupt practice. Why do all tenders have to be awarded to one contractor when there are many others in the area? Are you telling me that they are all are stupid and only one is reputable?

“Obviously if the tender value is R10 million, and R1 million has to be paid to the tender board officials as a kickback, the work that will be done on the road will be shoddy. Quality will always be compromised,” Nkosi said.

According to him, some of the shortcomings were due to the system of centralisation as people in the area were not involved in the awarding of tenders.

“There is a need for us in the municipality to be given the drafts of contracts before tenders are awarded in order for us to give our opinions. We are the people on the ground, we know what is going on here. You are only told that a contractor has been appointed and when you go to the site, you can see that the work that it has done is substandard, but you can’t say much because the engineer assigned to supervise the work has a better version.”

He added that it was time for companies to clearly indicate the lifespan of their projects and attach a warranty for that period.

The road was completed last November and has not yet been officially handed over to council. With Barberton Times’ recent visit to the site, it was found in a dire state. This journalist also saw water spouting from the ground, an indication that there might have been a burst pipe.

Residents said the road was resurfaced on Tuesday, but by Wednesday the water was running again. An electricity cable was also found lying close by, which puts their lives at risk.

Solly Ndlovu of Rea Dira Project said they were aware of these issues and tried to find the cause. “Upon our investigation we established that there was water coming from underground. Our task was to construct the road, not to install water pipes. We resurfaced the road, but it is the responsibility of council to fix the pipe,” said Ndlovu.

He said his company would be responsible for maintaining the road until October, as part of the agreement.