The community of Ext. 6 is asking a lot of awkward questions and is demanding that NW405 recovers an amount of R6.8 million for the water and sewerage reticulation in the area.
Tshepo Chempe, a community leader, is fuming. He wants to know what happened to the money from the municipal infrastructure grant that was budgeted for the project. He is also asking whether the municipality had ever evaluated the contractor they hired or checked the company’s track record.
Chempe produced documents to prove his claim. He says the six-month project that started in June last year suddenly came to a standstill after a few months.
According to him, there was not much work to be done, anyway, because the water and sewerage infrastructure had already been installed. He, therefore, accuses the municipality of wasting and misusing the money.
‘There is corruption and maladministration in the municipality. We need that R6.86 million to develop the informal settlement.
‘Our community has big unemployment challenges,’ he said. ‘The workers are still waiting for the money that was allocated for their salaries.’ Chempe is adamant that taxpayers’ money must be used correctly. ‘The councillors are failing to deliver,’ he said.
We must not wait for 5 years to remove councillors
Chempe says the community should not have to wait five years to remove incompetent councillors from office. ‘By-elections are the only way out. We need to remove those councillors who do not work for our people. Nelson Mandela said ‘if the ANC does to you what the Apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the Apartheid government,’ he said. ‘Wrong is wrong. We want service delivery.’
The contractor will resume work on site, says NW405
According to NW405 municipality’s spokesperson, Willie Maphosa, the query refers to the subdivision of Ikageng Ext. 6 Erven (10569, 10857, 10580, 10858) C/O Mogolodi /Sarafina RD’.
‘The municipality has appointed Mtema Mashao Consulting Engineers and Casnan Civils cc (the contractor) for the designs and construction of water and sewer reticulation and the top structures for 181 households, he said. ‘The project came to a standstill because of the overflow of shacks within the above-mentioned subdivisions, however. The municipality is currently in the process of relocating the beneficiaries to Ikageng’s newly established Ext. 13 so that the appointed contractor can resume work on the site,’ he said.
