Advert refutes mayor’s statement
Municipality maintains R45m was for supply of materials only
Chris Hani District Municipality officials have been economical with the truth about the multimillion-rand sanitation tender awarded to Kimberley-based company Izwelethu Cemforce for the supply and construction of VIP (ventilated individual pit-latrine) toilets.
The municipality has maintained that the contract was only for the supply of the material for the toilets and not for constructing them.
The Dispatch today can reveal that in an advert, published last April (right), the district municipality’s acting municipal manager, BJ Mthembu, called for tenders, inviting companies to supply and construct toilets in several wards.
Yet CHDM mayor Mawonga Gela, in response to the Dispatch’s investigation on the municipality making an upfront payment of R45m although residents received no toilets, issued a statement saying the payment was for the supply of the toilet material alone.
Izwelethu Cemforce was awarded three contracts to build 4,610 VIP toilets in five wards in the Intsika Yethu local municipality in Cofimvaba.
Letters confirming the contract were signed by the municipality on November 4 and 15. Four days later, on November 19, Izwelethu Cemforce invoiced the municipality for R47,491,898,24.
The municipality’s finance unit received this invoice on November 21 and by the next day, November 22, the invoice was processed.
On the same day, a municipal official stamped the documents saying the work completed complied with the project specifications, standard, designs and business plan.
Also on the same day, four senior officials from the municipal finance department — the director, financial controller, programme manager and capital projects manager — signed off on the payment.
The Dispatch has the names of these officials.
The municipal finance manager signed the document on November 25, but this signature was later cancelled.
On December 6, three invoices worth R45m were paid to Cemforce.
The total cost of the 4,610 toilets is just over R77-million.
Last week Gela said: “First it is important to state upfront that the district refutes that the alleged payment to the service provider was related to the construction of VIP toilets. This particular tender clearly sought for the supply and delivery of material ... the payment relates to the procurement of material, not the actual construction of the VIP toilets as yet.”
Gela said the contractor had been introduced
in December to the community where the project would be implemented. A community project steering committee had been appointed to ensure “the community also plays its part in monitoring their project”.
The municipality has a long history of employing the services of Izwelethu Cemforce.
According to a source, the company was awarded a three-year tender back in 2010 to “eliminate the rural sanitation backlog”.
“Since then, their contract has been extended many times. It was only in 2016 or 2017 that it was advertised. This 2019 tender was for supply and construction of the toilets. The value of the 2010 contract was R600m and Cemforce immediately moved to build a factory in Komani,” the source said.
A WhatsApp message last week, supposedly from Gela’s office manager Mvuyisi Mdzeke, confirms that the 2010 tender was worth R630m and was for “alleviation of the district backlog which was then standing at 110,000”.
Documents seen by the Dispatch show that between 2016 and 2019 Izwelethu Cemforce earned R249m for sanitation projects of the municipality
On Monday pictures of Cemforce trucks delivering material at some of the wards were circulated on social media.
There were also pictures of residents digging toilet pits with their bare hands and without any new protective clothing, despite the municipality saying it had made an “upfront” payment for protective gear.
Izwelethu Cemforce site manager Etienne Degenaar could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Municipal spokesperson Thobeka Mqamelo confirmed that delivery of toilet material was in progress as per “our project programme”.
She said the protective gear was still being received. All those appointed to the project would receive the gear “but not the whole community”.
Asked if the subcontractor has been appointed to build the toilets, Mqamelo said that was in progress.
She said the introduction of the contractor to the community was being undertaken.
“The contractor has been introduced at varied times per arrangement with various ward leaders,” she said.