The Amajuba district municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal has been dragged to the Pietermaritzburg High Court and slapped with a R14-million lawsuit for allegedly breaching a contract.
The district municipality, anchored in Madadeni township and made up of Dannhauser, Emadlangeni, and Newcastle local municipalities, is being sued by a contractor called Mela Okuhle Enterprise.
The enterprise decided to sue the IFP-led municipality after it won the Goodehoop wastewater and treatment works contract and reached an agreement to build it at a cost of R73-million.
However, when the contractor was supposed to start working on the designated site, the district municipality started not cooperating by signing off the agreement, thus effectively blocking it from carrying out the work.
After the stalemate that happened between April and December 2024, the lucrative tender was readvertised.
In July 2025, the contract was awarded to SNA Construction at a cost of R89-million, leading to Mela Okuhle to approach the courts for relief.
Court interdict
Early in September, Mela Okuhle scored a victory when it obtained an interdict from the same court to block the district municipality from awarding the tender to SNA pending a full hearing.
Now Mela Okuhle is suing the municipality, saying the brazen actions of officials have meant that it could not do its work, and as a result, it wants compensation of R14-million from the Amajuba district municipality.
“As a result of the defendant’s [Amajuba] breach of contract, the plaintiff [Mela Okuhle] has suffered damages in the sum of R14 242 318.12,” read parts of the court papers filed by the contractor.”
The contractor wants the high court to also compel the Amajuba district municipality to pay the cost of damages with interest and to pay legal fees it has incurred while bringing the matter to court for adjudication.
The district municipality is yet to file its responding papers.
