Mayor says eMbalenhle and Evander will merge with Secunda
He said many companies qualify for a tender on paper only.
The executive mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, Nhlakanipho Zuma, said eMbalenhle and Evander will soon merge with Secunda.
Zuma said this at the Black Management Forum business breakfast held at Graceland on Tuesday, March 1.
He said there are potential projects that will create opportunities for medium and small enterprises.
Zuma asked the audience if they, as business people, are geared up for new development and business, because the national government has identified the N17 highway as a creator of megacities.
“There is a serious obsession, especially in the construction industry, around the system.
“I am beginning to learn that these grades are easily obtainable.
“The question is, what are required from a contractor to get the grades with which they brag?
“It is not that your account should contain a certain amount of millions or you had to have completed a project worth a certain amount?
“For me, tenders are there for a business to kick start, and before we can give you a tender, you are supposed to have done some large-scale work.
“That is why the municipality is are facing the problem of the incomplete projects,” said Zuma.
He said many companies qualify for a tender on paper only.
Zuma asked how is the bid committee supposed to see or know that those papers were completed by accredited service providers.
Thokozane Mndawe, BLF member, asked the mayor what action is the municipality taking when a company that was given a project failed to complete its work.
He is aware of some companies that had been appointed to fix the sewers, but they failed, yet they were given another project to repair roads.
The mayor responded by saying that in fact, those companies should be reported to the office of the National Treasury and be blacklisted.
According to Zuma, it is sometimes the municipality’s responsibility not to destroy small and emerging businesses but to grow them. However, there are also times when the municipality needs to take serious actions against those companies.
Zuma asked the Black Management Forum to assist the municipality in creating credible business people and managers, not opportunists.
He also said the municipality is in a process of reconstructing the road from eMbalenhle to Secunda and have budgeted for it in the coming financial year.
The Secunda West Corridor project will develop the municipality into a city.
Zuma and the BLF encouraged emerging businessmen to occupy the new cannabis business space as the government is busy with regulations of the said business.
