Bay SMMEs demand appointment letters
There seems to be no end in sight to the stalemate between construction companies who want to build RDP houses and the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
Angry contractors picketed outside the Gqeberha City Hall yesterday, demanding appointment letters they said they had been promised by the first week of this month.
However, acting city manager Mandla George said the first week of May was when they would finish dealing with objections — not issue appointment letters, as SMMEs claimed.
Luvuyo Magalela, who has been filling in for George who is on leave, had a meeting with SMME owners and told them there would be another meeting next week, where their grievances would be discussed with city officials and mayor Nqaba Bhanga.
The SMME owners have been protesting for months, demanding to be given appointment letters, but municipal bosses have said previously that it would only be done once all objections had been addressed.
In March, The Herald reported that the SMMEs were calling for Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane to intervene in the impasse between them and Bhanga on the R46m housing project.
Speaking outside the City Hall yesterday, Thandi Hendricks said George had told them to wait for eight weeks but had not made any communication thereafter.
“Mandla [George] told us to wait for eight weeks for him to finish with objections.
“On April 26, he called in the evening, saying that they were dealing with our issue and in the first week of May we would receive our appointment letters.
“But that passed, hence we are here to get answers,” Hendricks said.
She said the feedback received from Magalela was disappointing as it seemed the city would be starting afresh with the objections.
“The delays have affected us badly as SMMEs.
“Some of us are really struggling, we cannot send children to school and are barely able to survive,” she said.
Another business owner, Nonkosazana Daniso, said the municipality was inconsiderate.
“Now we are told that the time frame of objections can’t be estimated.
“I cry myself to sleep because of frustrations.
“We are struggling and during the time of R350 Covid-19 allowances, we could not benefit because we own companies, that are dormant,” Hendricks said.
However, George said they had only committed to wrapping up the objections and not to issuing appointment letters.
“The objections were the domain of the accounting officer,” he said.
“There is still going to be a long process involving appointing contractors, the bid judiciary committee would then recommend the appointments after all the processes had been finalised, and that is not me,” he said.
Addressing the contractors after their meeting, Magalela said the city was dealing with the issue and would send emails next week with the date and venue of another meeting.
“We will write to each contractor for the meeting,” he said.
“We will be tabling where we are with the objection processes.”
Bay spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said as the city had indicated before, it was critical to follow due process when awarding tenders and the process had not yet been concluded.
“The municipality is in a process to deal with more than 200 objections to the appointments that have been made.
“The objections process is part of the formal supply chain process that you have to attend to, with care.”
Mniki said the affected contractors had been made aware of the process and would be kept updated.
“This refers both to those that were successful and those that have objected.
“Doing this process haste has a potential of nullifying the whole process. We plead for all parties to be patient with the processes,” he said.
Bhanga said the city was happy that both contractors who were objecting and those who wanted to be appointed had come forward.
“It confirms to me that there are lots of fights about the contract.
“Our role is to make sure the law was [followed].
“The department of human settlements collapsed because of how contracts have been appointed.
“Now we are going to make sure the outcome of this is fair and within the context of the law,” he said.
He said the city was busy trying to resolve the issue.
“We want to stabilise human settlements — we don’t want any fights, we will do what is right.
“This tender has a lot to be looked at and my duty is to try to fix the things that were done wrong, making sure that there is fairness,” he said.