Another auction looms in Komani
RDP housing debt grew from R1.7 to R6m over 10 years of interest
Enoch Mgijima Municipality could lose 22 other essential service vehicles and three movable assets next week.
Siyahlutha Developers CC attorneys plan to auction municipal vehicles on August 3 in order to recoup the R5.9m the company says it is owed by the municipality for building RDP houses in Mcbright and Who Can Tell villages in 2005.
The company said the initial debt was R1.7m but the amount had gone up to R5.9m because of interest accumulated over 10 years.
This comes as 44 vehicles used for service delivery went under the hammer last month for R21m the municipality owes to Milowo Trading Enterprise for a community hall built in Sterkstroom.
Milowo had planned to auction more municipal assets this week but the embattled local authority paid R14m to Milowo and reached a repayment agreement with the company on how it would pay for the legal fees.
The Siyahlutha auction will see six trucks, a Nissan Qashqai, Opel Vivaro, two Isuzu Bakkies, a Chevrolet Aveo, Nissan, Chevrolet, Isuzu 1600, a trailer, a Toyota bakkie, generator trailer, diesel trailer, two water trailers, a roller and a Bomag Bell roller auctioned on August 3.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Siyahlutha’s Cynthia Tshabalala said they decided to forge ahead with the auction after the municipality failed to settle the debt in more than a decade. “We were awarded the tender in 2005 to build RDP houses in Mcbright and Who Can Tell villages near Whittlesea,” she said.
“We completed 678 houses in Mcbright and 181 in Who Can Tell. We stopped working in 2008 because of money.”
Tshabalala said they had tried everything to get the municipality to pay the debt and even took the municipality to court in 2010.
“The municipality did not provide any documents which prove that they do not owe us and we went to arbitration but they did not pitch.
“They failed even on the last attempt to submit their documentation to prove that they do not owe us,” she said.
Municipal manager Chris Magwangqana said they were trying everything to stop the auction from going ahead.
Tshabalala said because of the dragging payment and the court cases, they had lost some of their assets.
“We had trucks and bakkies to run the business but they were all repossessed,” she said.
“The municipality never appeared in court until we won the case on June 6 2018. From the beginning of this case, they have maintained they don’t owe us but they fail to provide information to prove that.
“We have done everything to try and meet the municipality halfway. We even opted to settle the matter outside court and they were not willing.”