The City of uMhlathuze, which its administration seat is located in Richards Bay on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, is taking a tough stance against contractors who siphon municipal funds and fail to meet their contractual obligations.
This is according to mayor Xolani Ngwezi while he was unveiling a contractor who will construct a 15-megalitre package plant aimed at easing water woes for 15 wards under the municipality.
The multi-million rands water project is already a year behind after the Mhlathuze Water, a government-owned entity which was contracted to oversee the construction of the plant, reneged on its promise despite the municipality footing more than R20-million to get the work under way.
“We were really hard done by the Mhlathuze Water because we had already paid some money for the project, but they failed to deliver,” said Ngwezi.
“The package plant should have been completed last year. The new contactor has promised that within three months, the package plant would have been completed.”
Other drastic measures that Ngwezi said the municipality had taken in the aftermath of the saga is doing more work internally.
“Doing work ourselves saves the municipality money and we also create more jobs for the locals,” he said.
“For instance, when we consulted experts on the money that we were giving Mhlathuze Water, we realised that it was severely inflated.”
While the initial projections of the whole water project which was given to Mhlathuze Water had a total cost of R60-million, costs later ballooned to R130-million.
Ngwezi also made a surprising move when he took over the mayorship of the IFP-led council by refusing to occupy the multi-million rands residence owned by the municipality.
Instead, he opted to stay in his home.
The City of uMhlathuze is the second-biggest economy in KwaZulu-Natal after the eThekwini metro.
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