The City of Mbombela (CoM) claims it paid a contractor to reconnect the traffic lights at the intersection of Dr Enos Mabuza and Johanna drives in 2020, but these traffic lights remain non-operational.

A member of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) of CoM, Sanley van der Merwe, said there is no variation order being investigated.
“The variation order that the CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said the City requested from the council in order to complete the project, which includes the traffic and street lights, does not include the traffic lights at Dr Enos Mabuza and Johanna drives.

“MPAC is not investigating any variation order. We presented our report to the council after determining that the order did not exceed the 20% threshold, therefore, the municipal manager can approve the order so that the traffic light issue can be resolved,” she said.

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Van der Merwe also said the municipality had told the council that it had already paid White Hazy Construction in 2020 to reconnect the traffic lights.

“They went as far as stating that they had already bought new traffic lights to be installed and that these were in a municipal storeroom. However, when they started with the installation at Enos Mabuza, the committee was surprised to find that they were using the old traffic lights, claiming the new lights would be installed on the same road next to the SPAR.”

Van der Merwe said MPAC is not holding up the process of reconnecting the lights, and that the CoM must explain to the community why the lights are still not working, despite the fact that the contractor has been paid and they were given the go-ahead to energise the traffic lights a long time ago.

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A FF Plus and an EFF councillor in the CoM, Ken Robertson and Gabisile Nkambule, also members of the MPAC, agreed with Van der Merwe and confirmed that a contractor had been paid for the traffic lights to be fixed, and they are not waiting for any variation order. According to their understanding, the traffic lights were supposed to be functioning by now.

Lowvelder made numerous attempts for a comment from White Hazy Construction, however, the company referred the paper to the CoM.
Ngala insisted that the Dr Enos Mabuza Drive project is one that includes the simultaneous widening of the lanes, the erection of walkways and the traffic lights.

The municipality maintains that it is awaiting the outcome of the MPAC and council to approve the variation order to proceed with energising the traffic lights.