Resurfacing welcomed, but why no sign board?

The Makhado Municipality has commenced with surfacing the streets of the new residential area in Eltivillas (Extension 1), Louis Trichardt.

The project has a total contract value of R9,7m for around 7km of streets. The commencement date of the project was March 17 this year and the official completion date is December 17.

The Makhado Municipality indicated last week that the project is running as expected. Despite the appreciation for the fact that the street surfacing is well underway, an aggravating has situation reared its head.

The project steering committee (PSC), who says that they desire to guide their project well, feels that their opinions are not being respected and their input taken into account. They PSC also says that the municipality does not stick to what they say as recorded in the minutes of the meetings.

One issue that the PSC feels strongly about is the absence of a project sign board indicating the details of the companies involved in the project, as well as details of the project itself.

“Why is there no project sign board? Why don’t they want to be transparent about the project and show the information on a project sign board?” asked the chairperson of the PSC, Mr M E Mbedzi.

In the minutes of a site meeting on July 11, it was noted that “the project name board issue will be dealt with within two weeks from the day of the meeting”. The meeting, which was scheduled by the Makhado municipal manager, was attended by the members of the PSC, the ward councillor, representatives of the Makhado Municipality, the consulting engineering firm, the contractor, and SANCO.

“One and a half months later than the promised date, there is still no sign board. The project is supposed to take nine months and we are already in month five,” Mbedzi said.

The Makhado Municipality said this week that the contractor was still waiting for the sign board from the manufacturer.

Another issue that the steering committee raised was the strength of the cement used.

“We wanted to know why 32.5 cement and not 42.5, a stronger cement, has been specified. We were told that they wanted to go for the cheaper cement. At some point we were told that we would not understand such technicalities and we were denied access to the laboratory tests of the soil,” Mbedzi said.

On the cement issue, the municipality said that tests had been conducted on the 32.5 cement with regard to the strength needed and mixture proportions had also been determined.

“Their inputs have been taken into consideration,” said municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi on Tuesday, 30 August.

News - Date: 02 September 2011

Linda van der Westhuizen

Linda van der Westhuizen has been with Zoutnet since 2001. She has a heart for God, people and their stories. Linda believes that every person is unique and has a special story to tell. It follows logically that human interest stories is her speciality. Linda finds working with people and their leaders in the economic, educational, spiritual and political arena very rewarding. “I have a special interest in what God is doing in our town, province and nation and what He wants us to become,” says Linda.

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