Water tower nearly done
EC officials inspect R57m project, and R6m paving
Representatives from the Eastern Cape Premier’s Office, accompanied by members of the provincial legislature, conducted an oversight visit at the Thornhill 2.6ML elevated tower and West Beach Drive on Monday.
The officials started with a drive along West Beach Drive, where the paving was completed in 2019, and then proceeded to the Thornhill water tower.
There they met with Mamlambo Construction’s site manager, Bevan Kashagen, to inspect the project’s progress.
The oversight visit came after R63m in funding from the premier’s offfice from the Small Town Revitalisation Grant was allocated to Ndlambe Municipality in the 2018/2019 financial year.
Of that, R6m went to paving West Beach Drive and R57m was used for the elevated water tower and pump station.
The West Beach Drive paving project was completed within the deadline.
During the visit, Kashagen confirmed that the elevated tower project was delayed but was expected to be completed by the end of June.
According to Kashagen, the change of ownership of the company and a subsequent legal battle had affected the timeframe to complete the tower project.
The tower was supposed to be complete by March and because of the challenges with the company takeover, they were then given a three-month extension by the municipality to complete the project.
Director of infrastructure, Dr Noluthando Vithi, said: “There was intervention from the office of the premier in terms of how they should be taking the project forward, because we didn’t want to terminate the contract when they’re only 3% away from completion.”
The 2.1km West Beach Drive paving was done by two SMMEs.
According to Vithi, this created work opportunities for Ndlambe residents.
“We didn’t hire a big contractor for the beach road because we wanted to develop small enterprises so they can develop skills.
“That also [provided] work opportunities for the people of this community,” Vithi said.
Kashagen confirmed that skills transfer had taken place during the project, with concrete work and steel fixing done by SMMEs.
He said the project was close to completion, with only 3% of the work left to be done.
Vithi further confirmed that once the Thornhill 2.6ML elevated tower was complete, it would be enough to supply residents in both Nemato Township and Thornhill.
Vithi also said the pipelines to the Sarel Hayward Dam were now fully operational and this meant the amount of water pumped into Port Alfred’s main supply dam would increase.