Mokonyane in pay spat
CONSTRUCTION: FIRM DOWNS TOOLS DUE TO MINISTER’S DEPT DEBT OF R256M
‘Impasse between these two elephants means no water for Giyani residents.’
Apayment row between the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, and a Midrand construction company has taken on a new dimension, with the EFF and the DA entering the fray.
According to EFF provincial leader Jossey Buthane, the project had created much-needed jobs for the masses of unemployed people in Limpopo.
“When elephants fight, the grass suffers,” Buthane said yesterday.
He said the impasse between the two elephants now meant the residents of Giyani were only likely to have water “in many years to come”.
The EFF had been peacefully protesting midweek at the gates of Khato Civils’ Giyani branch, in solidarity with the more than three million population of Mopani, which had been without water for the past eight years.
Khato Civils, owned by construction mogul Simbi Phiri, has been involved in a payment spat with Mokonyane’s department since January, claiming it’s owed R256 million.
In light of this, the company had downed tools from January 3, but later returned to work after the department made an undertaking to settle the account, The Citizen was told.
But it has subsequently embarked on a go-slow that started a fortnight ago, when the payment had not been received.
The DA yesterday urged auditor-general Thembekile Makwetu to probe the reasons behind the department defaulting.
DA MP and shadow water and sanitation minister Heinrich Volmink said the party would recommend that the minister be fired if she failed to advance convincing factors for why her department was failing the nation.
But Mokonyane’s spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase yesterday said the department only dealt with consultants, and not sub-contractors.
“As for pending invoices, the service provider [LTE] is on-site and payment due to LTE has been approved.”.