Picture: The Phalaborwa Consultant company allegedly abandoned the water project
By OBAKENG MAJE
The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality said it might terminate the R1 billion Water project contract awarded to the Phalaborwa Consultant company. This comes after the contractor allegedly abandoned the project for the past three months without paying its employees.
Phalaborwa Consultant was appointed to install pipelines for the abstraction of water from the iconic Taung Dam to the Taung Water Treatment Plant and reservoir in Morokweng village. However, on 14 July 2023, the aggrieved employees embarked on a protest and barricaded a road between Manthe and Kolong villages, near Taung after they were allegedly not paid their three months’ salaries.
According to one of the employees, Sparks Tshisi, they have tried to get in hold of the company’s representative, Simon Malatjie but to no avail.
“It’s been three months since last we received our payments. So, we decided to barricade the road in order for the company to pay us. We do have families to feed and we cannot continue to work without being paid.
“We need our salaries and we urge the municipality to intervene. Our Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) are nowhere to be found. The other one said he is in Johannesburg looking for a job, while the other one is in Kuruman also job-hunting,” Tshisi said.
The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality spokesperson, Joe Motlhasedi said: “Yes, it is true that employees barricaded the road because the contractor has not paid them for three months. The contractor is off-site.
“He has not been on site now for three months due to the non-payment of labourers. His guarantee has lapsed in February 2023 and the engineer has made him aware on several occasions but did not renew it. The engineer requested the intervention from the municipality and we wrote them a letter of intention to terminate should they not provide the guarantee.”
Motlhasedi further said, the municipality requested to have a meeting with the contractor on 11 July 2023, but they did not honour the invite. He added that, again on 14 July 2023, the municipality requested the virtual meeting, and still the contractor did not honour the invite.
“The remedial action is to request the contractor to relinquish the works to the other contractor, who has recently completed his portion of the same phase. If that fails, then we have to terminate the contract,” he said.
Meanwhile, on 19 March 2022, the R1 billion Taung Bulk Water Supply project was brought to a grinding halt after community members alleged that, the contractor was not properly introduced to them.
In a statement, the Water and Sanitation Department spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau said the project is funded by the Department of Water and Sanitation Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG), with approximately R1 billion allocated to the project.
“The project is one of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) major infrastructure projects in the North West, aimed at developing water infrastructure that will meet the needs of the community and ensure water security.
“The construction of an adequate infrastructure such as the Taung Bulk Water Supply that can support and supply efficient safe water to communities in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, therefore, is a critical input to sustainable growth and development,” Ratau said.
He said the scheme, which is implemented in phases, has created 304 jobs thus far and 189 139 households in more than 55 villages have been targeted to benefit from this water project.
TaungDailyNews 