Legal row over fees for Zuma village

Architect firm claims it is still owed R800 000 for work

THE architects who designed a planned R2-billion town on the doorstep of President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead are embroiled in a legal battle about unpaid fees.

At the centre of the row is an outstanding amount of about R800 000 that Johannesburg architects Mashabane Rose Associates, who did the feasibility study and mock-ups of the planned town, claim they are owed by Kombani Consulting — originally contracted to carry out the work.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, which is developing the new town, has washed its hands of the matter and is proceeding with its plans, having already paid R1.8-million to consultants to develop a master plan for “Zumaville”.

In papers before the High Court in Pretoria, Phil Mashabane, a director of Mashabane Rose, said he concluded a “partly oral, partly written” agreement with Kombani director Tinyiko Maswanganyi in January 2011 in terms of which his OUT OF POCKET: Phil Mashabane company was appointed as project manager and architect for the “smart” village.

But Kombani, which was appointed by the department as project manager of the town — officially known as the UmlalaziNkandla Smart Growth Centre — has denied entering into such an agreement.

Mashabane said his firm, with the consent of the department, was appointed by Kombani as the project manager and architect for the town’s feasibility study. However, Clinton Heimann, the department’s chief director of economic and ICT infrastructure, said this week it was Kombani and not the department that had appointed Mashabane Rose.

It was not clear why the department allowed Kombani — which was paid R2.4-million for a feasibility study — to subcontract the rest of the work to Mashabane Rose.

Mashabane said Kombani failed to pay for two invoices, for R741 802 and R55 060 respectively, which his firm submitted after it had complied with “its obligations and carried out the agreed project management and architectural services”. He said despite efforts to obtain payment from Maswanganyi, he had failed to do so. He then e-mailed Heimann on February 14 2012 requesting an update on the payment.

In his response, Heimann said the payments had been processed and asked Maswanganyi to indicate to Mashabane Rose that it would be paid.

Mashabane claims Maswan- ganyi ignored the directive.

Maswanganyi denied he had entered into an agreement with Mashabane Rose, saying the firm’s requested tariff of R1 800 per hour exceeded the department’s parameters.

He said Heimann had instructed him to proceed with employing Mashabane Rose and to comply with the department’s instruction. He had asked Mashabane to submit information to enable the parties to reach an agreement. This was never delivered.

The ongoing legal tussle is unlikely to affect the building of the town, because the initial work by the architects was delivered to the department.

Zuma recently said the planned town was going ahead.

The building of the 200ha town, 3.2km from Zuma’s homestead, is already embroiled in another controversy after the Nkandla municipality said it was not consulted about it and that it could lead to the collapse of the existing town.