The Makhado Municipality has taken a resolution to address the damaged streets of Louis Trichardt town, including Eltivillas and the industrial area, and also to address the quality problem with the Waterval street surfacing project.

According to the spokesman of the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi, the municipality has made a budget available to reconstruct and refurbish the main streets in Louis Trichardt. He added that the Louis Trichardt community must therefore not panic, as the municipality has already advertised the tender to address the challenge. "We are now waiting for the proposal and for the consultants to begin with the project," indicated Bobodi.

Bobodi also said that there are other projects which are currently under construction, one of which is the Louis Trichardt industrial street refurbishment. He further acknowledged that the Eltivillas street surfacing project will soon be taking place. "The contractors for the street surfacing project of the Eltivillas area will be on site by the last week of March," revealed Bobodi.

However, the Makhado Municipality has managed to complete street surfacing projects, such as the Tsianda to Vuwani access road, the Louis Trichardt Extension 9 street surfacing, Dzanani street surfacing and the Tshikota street surfacing, through the municipal infrastructure grant (MIG).

Though the Municipality prioritized the Waterval street surfacing project for implementation in the 2006/7 financial year, the community does not seem to be satisfied with the road. In that regard, Bobodi is also acknowledging that although the scope of the project was to develop the streets to a total of 4,1km, the additional scope was given to the contractor, bringing the total number of kilometers to 5,3 km.

"That required the municipality to extend the construction time for designs and construction. As a result, during completion of the road construction, the quality of the road was not up to standard," Bobodi emphasized.

Bobodi further outlined that the municipality, in line with the general conditions of contracts for civil construction, called the contractor to address the quality issue.

"The contractor could not deliver on time and there was very little progress. The municipality then terminated the contract, as a result of a breach of contract by Renkie Building Construction, of which the available retention and surety money will be utilized to redress the quality problems," he said.