KZN school stalled by construction mafia and contractor challenges

Delays in payments and extortion claims have caused learners at Sibonginhlanhla Primary School in Verulam, north of Durban, to suffer under unbearable learning conditions.

The learners had hoped to celebrate the launch of their newly built R73m school in July, but instead the contractor was officially terminated. The new date for the school to be completed has moved to July next year with an additional R10m cost.

The school that the pupils currently use has no proper sanitation and there is no parking for the teachers.

KwaZulu-Natal public works and infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer read the riot act to the contractor at a briefing on Tuesday.

He said his department was committed to assist contractors if they experience challenges, but despite repeated overtures in this instance the service provider was unable to complete the project and it hadn’t passed quality inspections.

“The conditions these learners are studying under are unacceptable,” he said.

Meyer said his department was R1bn in debt when he came to office, but they have since paid it off.

“What was supposed to have been seen here today was a state of the art school at the point of being reopened, but we are seeing something very different — a 53% progress rate [of completion] is not even underwhelming, it’s unacceptable and it’s no longer practical.

“It has cost time and severely inconvenienced teachers, the learners and the community, and I really apologise. It’s going to push the cost up from a R73.9m budget to an estimated R84.3m — that’s R10m of taxpayers’ money.

“Most of the projects on our books have been affected by finances payments or external issues like criminal elements — the extortionists or skabengas.”

Meyer said his department has been addressing these issues and taking appropriate actions.

However, contractor Mbongiseni Duma of Khulakwande Construction, who was appointed to build the new school, accused the department of failing him.

“There are many challenges in this project, the department has failed to pay on time, which has a negative impact in the project. I used my money to fund this project. I used R24m to fund his project, but I only got back 25% of that money,” he said.

Duma said he didn’t have capacity to fund government projects, adding that in 12 months he only received payment three times.

“The way we were running this project was not sustainable. Hence, we have many challenges, I worked with sub-contractors and business forums who do not negotiate — they only want their money every month end,” he said.

Ward councillor Johnson Chetty conceded that there are many challenges affecting the project.

Chetty said in the first phases the project was running smoothly, but things changed after the contractor reported delays in payments.

He said he hopes the challenges will be resolved soon for the sake of the learners.

“Learners are studying under extreme conditions in this school and something need to to be done urgently to address that,” he said.

Deputy principal Senzo Khoza urged Meyer to intervene and solve their crisis

“Children are learning under bad conditions, we are calling on the MEC to help solve our situation,” said Khoza.