Local contractors bemoan exclusion from lucrative projects

Local business people believe they are being left out in the cold when it comes to the awarding of tenders for major projects within the J.B. Marks municipality.

According to Coster Mbotshane, the representative of the J.B. Marks radical economic empowerment task team, local business people are not given a fair chance in the municipality and are not being consulted at all.

‘Only a few locals are benefiting. Ninety-five per cent are outsiders yet we are the ones paying for services.’ He pointed out a number of dealings that are currently taking place.

‘The executive mayor and other municipal officials have set up an Eleazer business committee and we want to know what their interests are. Why were we not consulted? The mine is within our municipality yet, we are not benefiting from it,’ he said.

He added that they are also being excluded from Lifalethu mine, despite reaching an agreement with the local economic development (LED) department.

A recent clean-up campaign in town has also ruffled the feathers. Coster says it is a partnership between J.B. Marks and the Potch Business Chamber. ‘The local business people were not consulted. The business chamber was awarded a three-year contract for services like the patching of potholes, road signs, illegal dumping, street lights and the cleaning of Potchefstroom. The municipality claims they are not paying for these services yet they are employing people. Where is the money coming from?’

Public and private institutions are giving us the cold shoulder
Coster says the J.B. Marks municipality is not the only culprit – this is also happening at a number of public and private institutions. They all prefer certain individuals to do the job. ‘The North-West University doesn’t consider the skills of local business people, especially if they are black or coloured,’ he said.

‘When all said and done, this is not a political initiative or battle, it is all about the empowerment of our local people.’

Millions leaving Potchefstroom

He has also highlighted a number of companies that are awarded lucrative tenders while the local contractors are left with crumbs.

‘In 2018, the municipality never appointed any local contractor after the tenders were advertised. A businessman from Mpumalanga was given projects in Ext. 9 to build toilets, sewer and water reticulation, the bulk water project in Boikhutsong and the Appeldraai road.

‘The new disaster and risk management building worth R18 million was allocated to a businessman in Klerksdorp. There are currently no sub-contractors. Why didn’t they allocate the paving, building, plumbing and electricity to us? That project was given to one person.

‘A company from the Free State was appointed to unblock sewage and a company from Cape Town was appointed to put up speed humps. They could have let the company supply the materials and let us build the speed humps,’ he objected.

He added that the municipality has been using the same cleaning services for more than 10 years with no rotation system in place.

‘The outsiders come and take the millions to their provinces. There are no corporate social initiatives by these companies within the community. It is time that we protect our economy in Potch and our children’s future. We are not saying the people from outside must not come to Potch but there must be some form of empowerment,’ he added.

Having said that, he is calling on ‘all local businesses to come together and speak with one voice and come with one J.B. Marks business structure because we are all now the J.B. Marks municipality. We cannot grow or be upgraded. We are saying, “nothing about us without us”.’

No formal partnership with the municipality
Bennie Groenewald, the chairman of the Potch-Tlokwe Chamber of Commerce says the partnership between the Potch-Tlokwe Chamber of Commerce and the J.B. Marks municipality as referred to in the newspaper at the beginning of August is no formal partnership in terms of roles, responsibilities, mandates etc.

‘It is rather about joining hands with the municipality from time to time to clean the city and provide services where there is an emergency.

‘The chamber launched the cleaning trolley project years ago. A member used to rent the trolley from the chamber and use one of the member’s full- time employees to push it around the physical address of that business, picking up trash and helping to keep our city clean. A clean city is inviting to investors passing through and attracts capital spending that creates jobs in the end.

‘No contract has been entered into whatsoever. The business community must take hands with the municipality, to take our city forward so we all can live in a clean, safe city we can be proud of. The Potch Tlokwe Chamber of Commerce invites the J.B Marks radical economic empowerment task team to become members. Let’s take hands and move forward!

The NWU excludes nobody on the basis of colour or race

Louis Jacobs, the spokesperson of NWU says nobody is excluded by the NWU on the basis of colour or race.when it comes to allocating tenders or service contracts,

‘All open tenders are advertised in the media, specifically in the Beeld, The Star and, where services are required, advertisements are also placed in the Potchefstroom Herald, the Vaal Ster or the Mafikeng Mail, depending on where the services are needed. These are also advertised on the NWU’s website.

‘The normal criteria of 80/90 per cent price, 18/8 per cent BBBEE and 4/2 per cent local business are used when the tender adheres to the required functionalities that were specified in the tender (In the differentiation, the first figure refers to tenders under R1 million and the second figure, to tenders of more than R1 million).

The Procurement Act does not prescribe that local businesses should be looked at but, as a result of the university’s commitment to addressing this issue, we also include that in our scorecard,’ he said.

Jacobs says the university placed an advertisement for local businesses to register on the university’s database a while back, once again to ensure that they are not excluded.

‘Most of the service contracts are allocated to a one-year contractor because they amount to more than R100 000. For example, we do not handle the tiling of a specific venue on its own but we allocate a one-year contract for all the tiling that needs to be done on a specific campus.

Should the complaint refer to a specific tender or service contract, details should be supplied, to allow the university to comment on the merits of the allocation in that specific incident,’ he said.

*At the time of print there was still no response from the municipality.