Deal to speed up housing delivery
Contractors and authorities smoke the peace pipe
THE government and small black business owners in Nelson Mandela Bay have smoked the peace pipe, which has led to a promise that there would be no more protests and closing of construction sites by housing contractors.
That is if the municipality and provincial and national Department of Human Settlements can keep to their end of the bargain to pay SMMEs within 30 days of completing their work.
The controversial roster system – which has about 400 housing contractors registered on the municipality’s supplier database – will be given to the Housing Development Agency to manage to ensure that work is fairly distributed.
This is one of about 40 resolutions adopted at a two-day workshop between the government and housing contractors at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium yesterday.
The workshop was the brainchild of Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who wanted to give SMMEs an opportunity to iron out challenges between them and the government about how tenders are allocated.
Sisulu and Bay mayor Danny Jordaan were scheduled to sign an agreement that outlines her department’s plan to fast-track housing delivery in the metro, but the signing was cancelled yesterday morning.
Both were said to have other commitments in Cape Town.
Acting director-general Mbulelo Tshangana said the three spheres of government would sign social contracts with the business owners binding them to an agreement to work together.
Some of the resolutions agreed to at the workshop include:
ý 90% of the SMMEs on the roster will be allocated projects;
ý The roster system will be fixed to ensure it is fair;
ý Contractors will trained; and
ý SMMEs will be paid within 30 working days for work completed.
Tshangana said: “We are not here to kill the roster, we are here to fix the roster. We want to sign a social contract with you so that we can hold each other accountable if things are not delivered.
“If we fix the roster system, we will fix it guided by the legis-
be lation so that we don’t end up in jail.
“I’ve been listening attentively and the SMMEs and contractors are simply crying for help, they are crying for support.
“If they don’t get paid on time, the businesses are going to go under. It affects the viability of their business.”
Metro Black SMME Association president Baba Ningi, who previously led a number of SMME owners to close housing projects and municipal buildings, said they were happy with the outcome of the workshop.
“We didn’t have an ear to listen to our frustrations. We’re not rude and we’re against closing of sites, but we just want fairness in tendering.
“This workshop helped us a lot. We’re quite happy so far, so what we’re saying is that for now we won’t be toyi-toying.”