Local contractors have come together with the aim to remove all obstacles which they say have prevented them from getting contracts from Endumeni Municipality during the past 20 years.
At a meeting at the municipality last Monday, meeting co-ordinator Sipho Kunene said local contractors have found themselves ‘victims of the corruption that has engulfed the municipality over the past year’.
“This is as a result of the supply chain management system used, which has been manipulated to ensure friends and family of officials were given jobs and paid handsomely. We know of officials who are running catering companies and awarding themselves contracts.”
Endumeni Speaker S’duduzo Mdluli and acting Corporate Services Manager Desiga Padayachee attended the meeting to listen to the list of damning allegations.
The contractors demanded that the municipality use them fairly in future to assist them to grow and thereby employ local people. They also demand a ‘transparent list’ of all companies that have been awarded tenders from Endumeni.
“We feel that the tender policy must be flexible in a way that it allows the rotation of tenders. We don’t want a situation in which one company is dominating just because that particular company has some connection with supply chain management officials,” the emerging constructors added. 
They urged Speaker Mdluli to make sure that ‘the right people’ be awarded sub-contracts in a future project in which about 700 houses are to be built on the buffer strip adjacent to Sibongile. 
They also enquired as to the rate that sub-contractors will receive for working on the project. They were told that the rate, as laid down by the Department of Public Works, is R3 500 per house.
However, Mr Padayachee said Council will try to accommodate these policies into the supply chain management policy.
The contractors also demanded that all tenders be advertised in the Courier and on the municipal notice board, rather than just on the municipal website. The contractors claimed that in the past they were told to pay a ‘joining fee’ of R2 000 to an organisation called the National Federation for the Building Industry (NAFBI) if they want to become members. According to information from the owner of the company, Aubrey Shalati, this was organised by Mayor Thulani Mahaye. Speaker Mdluli responded by saying he cannot discuss the matter as Mayor Mahaye ‘is not present at this meeting’. Speaker Mdluli promised to convey the message to Mayor Mahaye. 
When approached by the Courier Mayor Mahaye said it was his intention to ‘bring development to the town after Mr Shalati promised many projects’. 
“I wasn’t aware that this issue would end with the contractors being unhappy. Anyway, I will make all attempts to get hold of Mr Shalati to answer the contractors,” said Mayor Mahaye.