Lekwa gives local business the cold shoulder
A catering company also from eMalahleni, Thakhu Catering, was paid R598 000 in 2018 to cater for the mayor’s state of the municipal address.
Mr Louis Jansen van Rensburg, DA-councillor, strongly condemned the Lekwa Municipality’s approach of outsourcing.
In a press release of 8 July, he said the ANC-led municipality is bleeding out its economy.
“It seems as if millions of rands are paid to contractors and service providers, who are not locally based,” Mr Van Rensburg said.
According to him, the municipality makes use of the services of lawyers, administration specialists, building contractors, accountants, stationers, electrical suppliers, contractors, plumbers, even security companies and food suppliers, while Standerton has its own qualified business people.
He pointed out that local job opportunities, local economic growth and investment are affected.
Mr Van Rensburg gave a 2008-example of Runway Construction that built the chicken broilers with municipal money in Morgenzon.
“Ironically, they ran away with the money and did not complete the project.”
Another example was when more than R3,8-million was paid to Globe Electrical in eMlahleni (Witbank) in 2010, an electrical supplies company.
The statement went on to say that more than R25-million was paid to Superpro Alarms, a security company from Malelane between December 2017 and March last year.
A catering company also from eMalahleni, Thakhu Catering, was paid R598 000 in 2018 to cater for the mayor’s state of the municipal address.
“Besides the preposterous amount spent on catering, the fact that local caterers were overlooked, is questionable,” Mr Van Rensburg also said.
“It is said that getting a bribe from an external contractor is harder to detect than from a local.” According to him, there are no accountability and consequences when an external contractor messes up a project and disappear.
The DA-statement concluded with saying the party will write to the municipal manager, Ms Gugulethu Mhlongo-Ntshangase, requesting a full explanation on the selection criteria of contractors used in the municipality and why it does not grow its economy by using Lekwa businesses.
Also read: Service provider for electricity in Standerton has no service level agreement
