GEGE-SICUNUSA ROAD: E75M MORE DOWN THE DRAIN?

GEGE – It gets worse. Although no construction is taking place at the controversial Gege-Sicunusa Road, the taxpayer is still expected to pay about E5 million per month to the contractor, Kukhanya Construction (Pty) Ltd.

This is because government, through the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, has to date still not terminated the contract between itself and Kukhanya.
As a result, to date, about E75 million will have to be paid to Kukhanya which stopped work around April 2018.
This was revealed yesterday on the construction site during a tour that was conducted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) led by its Chairperson, Member of Parliament Phila Buthelezi.

Horrified

The PAC was horrified at the very minimum work which had been done on the 42-kilometre stretch of road.
Charles Kakuwa, who represented Kukhanya as the Project Manager during the site visit left the committee shell-shocked when he said by the time they stopped construction in March 2018, about 75 per cent of the work had been done.

“This does not even look like 30 per cent of the work done,” said Buthelezi, who is also Matsanjeni North MP.
However, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Makhosini Mndawe and Chief Roads Engineer Vincent Dlamini, did not want to confirm or deny the figure.

They said all this would be finalised once the contractor had submitted the invoice as the figures could be disputed based on contractual obligations.
The PAC said the cost to the taxpayers was clearly higher than the E576 million which had been reported by the auditor general.
“We are well into over E600 million and it’s rising,” said MP Buthelezi.

Buthelezi observed that the road looked as if construction had stopped way back in 2005 instead of 2018.
Also present during the tour was Sandile Makhubu, the Project Consultant from ZMCK.
The PAC had a tough time comprehending the figure of E5 million per month which government would be expected to pay for continuing to engage the contractor.

The contractor and the ministry’s representative kept on telling the PAC that the calculations were still to be made.
However, the Resident Engineer, identified as Hans van DeWalt, let the cat out of the bag when he revealed that the discussed figure had been between E4 to E5 million per month.

The PAC also learnt that government had lost a lot of money because some of the equipment had been left on site and some residents decided to help themselves to it.
Barriers
This included barriers and road signs which were removed by the residents.
MP Buthelezi asked why the contractor had left the site without collecting some of the material, but no clear answer was forthcoming.
Instead, Kakuwa said they had taken steps to locking the containers which were on site so that the residents could not help themselves to the equipment.

The PS, Mndawe, also did not come out clearly to state why the contract had still not been terminated, but just said that the project was under suspension.
Makhubu, when asked about the monthly costs, said it was not an easy topic where one could just give out figures.  However De Walt said, “It’s about E4 to 5 million and we can’t dispute that Kukhanya can submit the invoices.” 

The PAC said it was unacceptable that for 15 months, no progress had been made. Buthelezi wondered how the contractor could justify the cost of the project and claim that they were at 75 per cent completion.
Meanwhile, the PAC discovered that only about half the road had been tarred and that the bridges had been left incomplete, which could lead to that the structures being demolished and the work restarted.

Gege MP Musa Kunene, who is the legislator of the area, highlighted that homesteads were becoming inaccessible because of flooding caused by the road being incomplete as the drainage was not properly done.
The PAC was further informed that the road from Zheng Yong factory to the Nhlangano turnoff would also be rehabilitated as it was part of the project. However, the PAC observed that it still had good tar and therefore should not be tampered with.

However, the PS said the road design was old and needed new ones of modern standards.  The PAC ended the tour by stating that all resolutions would be taken in the House this afternoon.

The issue of the Sicunusa-Gege Road has remained controversial following that the PAC suspended its sittings after some unidentified powerful people tried to put a halt to the matter being heard.

Those who had been previously expected to appear before the Committee were former Ministers of Public Works and Transport Lindiwe Dlamini and Ntuthuko Dlamini. However, Lindiwe, who is now Senate President did not appear, while Ntuthuko did.

Kukhanya’s Director, Peter Ngwenya, was also expected to appear, but he did not.
It is yet to be seen if they will turn up this afternoon.

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