Re: Domoina Lane and Mason Street projects

Doug Grewar, AbaQulusi Residents Association Chairman, writes:-

I HAD AN interesting meeting with Ward 8 Councillor Harry Heyns and Municipal Engineer Vasan Chetty last Friday at the Mason Street / Demoina Lane upgrade area.

The failed upgrade project there and the failed upgrade project in Mason Park have been taken over from the province by our AbaQulusi Local Municipality (ALM) and Municipal Engineer Chetty will be in charge of rectifying and completing the two projects. This is good news!

I think Clinton Potgieter the Plaza Manager will be very happy to hear that those brick kiosks that were put up right in front of some of his tenants’ shop front windows are to be demolished and will be replaced with small open table structures for the street traders. Mr Chetty says he is prepared to meet with the DEMAS Business Association to show them an example of these tables and to explain to them what he intends to do to rectify the mess that has been left by the runaway contractor.

I have informed the chairman of DEMAS, Mr Mohan Singh so that he can contact all his members so they can help Mr Chetty with some input from the business community. Mr Singh says he will also contact the street traders union so that they also get an opportunity to add their input. We hope that this time we will have a properly run project with community input to achieve a successful outcome.

The runaway contractor has unfortunately been paid out the full contract price already. He is being sued and the project manager who bulldozed this project through, against the advice and wishes of DEMAS, is also being sued.

Two new contractors have already been appointed and the Mason Park project has already been restarted. Mr Chetty thought it wise to postpone starting the demolition in Mason Street until after the Easter rush is over. I feel sure that the traders will appreciate this.

It is really disgusting to see government wasting taxpayers’ money putting up structures against the advice of the residents, the street traders and the business community, and then having to knock them down again. However we must all thank our Ward 8 Councillor Heyns and our ALM Engineer Chetty for stepping in to sort this mess out.

The costs of these rectifications and completions should be met by the people who originally started this project (the provincial government?) and not the already overburdened AbaQulusi Rate Payers.