By Luvuyo Mjekula
Angry and frustrated Makhanda subcontractors employed in the Rehabilitation of M Street and Albert Street project locked down the site office of the main contractor, iBhabhathane Civil and Construction, on Thursday morning, in protest against non-payment.
The group of small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) owners and their workers also shut off the yard housing iBhabhathane’s fleet of TLBs and other construction vehicles.
Workers abandoned the construction site while only one remained in the closed site office.
The Sarah Baartman District Municipality-funded project has previously hit lengthy delays due to similar payment disputes.
EFF PR councillor in Makana Municipality, Mzamo Booysen, who is also a member of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) in the district municipality, expressed concerns about further delays to the crucial project. He said the project is already behind schedule and should have been concluded by July.
According to a Makana Municipality statement released after an oversight visit by the district MPAC team last month, the project’s scheduled completion date is December 2025.
No pay, no work
Meanwhile, irate SMME owners vowed there would be no work until they are paid.
“The reason we are here is money. We have not been paid,” fumed Sithandile Fatyi of Sangenathi General Trading. He said he has not been paid for work done in July, including paving a 20-metre stretch of road in one day. “I finished that job within a day but I have not been paid.”
Fatyi said iBhabhathane owes him R24 780 as they had incorrectly billed his company for pavement pellet delivery. He is still waiting for the payment. The Tantyi businessman said he has been distressed since he started working under iBhabhathane. “This is the norm before we get paid. I have been fighting since I came into this project. It is a stressful situation. I don’t sleep at night.”
He employs about 20 workers and has not been able to pay them. One of them told Grocott’s Mail he struggles to make ends meet. “I was excited when I got this job, glad I would be able to put something on the table. But now I have to make other means to get money. We cleaned and paved roads. I wish they can pay us so that we can smile as well.”
Fatyi said project manager Asa Mazomba does not answer their calls. “When we call him, he says he is in a meeting. It is strange because they admitted they were paid by Sarah Baartman.”
He said all the SMMEs must be paid before work resumes.
The owner of George and Justice Construction, Zamile Ponoshe, expressed his frustration. “We sat with them and had discussions and we left the meeting hopeful because they told must the money will be there the next day, but it has not been paid. My concern is we are losing workers,” he said.
Ponoshe said they had not intentions to deliberately interfere with service delivery.
Like a joke
Noxolo Jela, of Thinumzi Trading Enterprise, said it was painful working for iBhabhathane. “I’m too old to be victimised by iBhabhathane. I am in pain.” She said the company officials lacked empathy. They had deducted money from her account for materials, even though she had expected they would take at the end of this month, she said. “They do a lot of injustice. You win a project of R1 million, but you leave with R100 000 and still have to pay workers. This is like a joke for me, and yet I have children to feed.”
Siphokazi Fatyi, the director of Sangenathi, echoed her colleagues. She said the rehabilitation project had been plagued by lack of materials. “If there were bricks, there would be no sand and when there was sand, there would be no bricks.”
She also lashed out at the project manager. “We discuss things with [Mazomba] here, but when he gets to Gqeberha, he changes his tune. We don’t even know the owner of iBhabhathane – we only know his voice on the phone. It is difficult to even buy yourself a TV as a working person. There is no honesty in this project. We are on our own.”
New charges
Sipho Marambana, of Medelyn Trading Enterprise, said he had noticed changes as the company appeared to have introduced new charges, including for the use of a TLB. He said they were being charged for equipment that did not appear in their Bill of Quantities. “This is unfair because we never signed for this. That is why we are losing money.”
According to Booysen, during their oversight visit to the project as MPAC, they had heard that the plant is fraught with problems including work schedules. “We heard that they work one day in a week and there are payment problems which cause delays to the project.”
He said the concern is that the project will likely miss its completion deadline. “When SMMEs are not paid in one month and paid in another, the people will go on strike. We don’t want the community to panic.”
He said he has reported the matter to the chairperson of the district MPAC and the infrastructure department and mayor Deon de Vos (executive mayor of Sarah Baartman District Municipality) would also be informed. “This is unacceptable. We cannot accept this.” Booysen said he had tried to contact the company to resolve the matter, to no avail.
IBhabhathane project manager Asa Mazomba had not responded to questions by the time of publishing.
