Work resumes on Mzimkhulu River bridge in Port Shepstone – again

After a two-week stoppage, repair work has restarted on the Mzimkhulu River bridge in Port Shepstone.
The contractors have been paid, and are currently closing the river mouth to enable heavy machinery to fix the defective pillar.

MEC for Transport and Human Settlements, Siboniso Duma said, “We have received more than R800m from our budget. As pointed out a few weeks ago, we experienced difficulties beyond our control.”

“The National and Provincial Treasury’s Basic Accounting System which is used to process payments was disrupted by the transition from the Standard Chart of Accounts 5 to 6. In addition, our payment system was also disrupted by the rechannelling of money to the Department of Education for the payment of teachers as governed by the National Norms and Standards for School Funding,” added Duma.

“We have agreed that the contractors must aim to finish the rehabilitation of the bridge by December 2. In our engagement with Provincial Treasury, it was agreed that our invoices from contractors will be prioritised.”
He added that many other contractors have been paid and he apologised for the inconvenience caused to residents and the business community across all sectors.

Nazir Shaikh, chairperson of the North Cluster Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association is thrilled that construction has resumed.

“The deployment of heavy-duty machinery is a significant step forward. We’re optimistic that the repair efforts will be accelerated, allowing the contractors to meet their targeted completion date of December in order to enable the bridge to reopen before the holiday season and also provide relief to motorists.”

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