By Luvuyo Mjekula
Frustrated Makhanda small business owners have been battling for more than five years to get the Eastern Cape Human Settlements Department to pay them their hard-earned money.
The local owners want to be paid for work they carried out as part of the government’s Special Cost Control and Compliance Authority (SCCCA) housing project, which involved renovating substandard RDP houses.
The 24 small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) owners said they were appointed to work on RDP houses in Eluxolweni and Fingo Village in Makhanda. They were paid accordingly when the project started in 2016.
Their problems began in 2020 when payments suddenly stopped.
Grocott’s Mail has seen a copy of one of the SMME owners’ contracts dated February 2020, which states that they were to be paid R377,000 for work involving plastering and painting of internal and external walls, as well as installation of fascia and barge boards and ceiling insulation.
However, four SMME owners who spoke to Grocott’s Mail claimed they were last paid in 2020, and the department still owes them thousands of rands plus interest.
They said they have been going up and down for the past five years, demanding what is due to them, to no avail.
“We are in pain because we spent our money fixing these houses,” said Thenjiswa Janse van Rensburg, the owner of Hlumekhaya Trading Enterprise.
She said she worked on houses in Eluxolweni in 2019 and is still owed all her retention for the houses she renovated there. She said, despite a meeting with the Human Settlements and Public Works departments in December, their plight has not been resolved. She said they were promised they would be paid in February this year, but that never happened.
“We emptied our savings to pay the workers we employed. I have had to sell my car to pay workers because they did the work, and they wanted to be paid. We need any help we can get,” pleaded Janse van Rensburg.
The business owners said they are in the dark because they do not know the truth about their money.
Blondie Mdoko, the director of Buhlumuzi Trading, said they have been told by “Mr Nana”, from the Human Settlements department, that their payments would be processed in September this year because he reportedly said they had not been included in the department’s budget. “We have been waiting for too long – our children’s savings are used up. September is too far.”
Mdoko said they started working on the project in 2016, but the work ended during COVID-19 in 2020. “We completed our work, but we have not been paid. We plastered, painted and patched cracks, and the houses were beautiful. We worked for two years on this project, and we were paid for some houses. I finished six houses in Fingo but was never paid for them. I have one in Eluxolweni.”
Like Janse van Rensburg, Mdoko said she had to use her children’s money for her work on the project. She said she had to give up some of her tools to the people to whom she owed money. “We were last paid in 2020. The LED director at Makana said ‘Mr Nana’ said we would be put into the budget in September because the project is old. The problem is Human Settlements.”
The owner of Siboniseng Construction, Liziwe Kolisi, said she owes a hardware store owner money for the account she opened to purchase sand and cement while working on the SCCCA project. “I still owe the business, and I cannot face the owner because I make promises I cannot keep. He must think I am a crook,” said Kolisi.
Maxero Multi Projects’ owner, Siyabonga Dondashe, accused the department of stealing his money. “My father died, and I had not even paid him back the money and other things I borrowed from him. I want my money to return with interest. That was a long time ago.”
The SCCCA project provided for the inclusion of plaster, paint, and ceilings in subsidised housing units. The initiative aimed to improve the quality and appearance of housing within specific projects and to address past defects in some areas.
Grocott’s contacted ‘Mr Nana’ but he refused to comment, directing questions to Human Settlements provincial spokesperson Siyabonga Mdodi.
Mdodi confirmed he received this publication’s questions, including confirmation of the small business owners’ allegations and when they would be paid. He promised to respond but failed to do so.
