Piles of abandoned toilet frames left strewn across open land at several Mount Coke villages near King William’s Town have become a headache for the farmers in the area.
The slabs were dumped on grazing land near Machibi, Madliki and ePhole in June.
A Daily Dispatch team visiting the area on Monday saw the piles of concrete slabs scattered across the land.
Local ward committee member Vakele Ntsokoma said the material was delivered last June as part of the Amathole District Municipality’s (ADM’s) multimillion-rand toilet provision project.
The Dispatch reported that the ADM had cancelled the tender and ordered contractors out of villages in all seven of the local municipalities in its jurisdiction.
This was after it emerged that the main contractor, the Siyenza group, was not a registered company.
The cancellation also saw all ADM construction projects shelved as the cash to pay service providers dried up.
Nomantombazana Cetshana, a member of a local committee that had monitored delivery of the material, told of how, after more than R500000 worth of the material was delivered, the contractors had disappeared without trace.
Cetshana’s responsibilities as Madliki village’s toilets project member included counting the material during delivery and registering the amount before confirming receipt for payment purposes.
She said the only names she could recall she had been working with were “Siyenza” and “MK veterans”.
Companies owned by former liberation struggle veterans were subcontracted to dig the pit holes and erect the frames of the toilets on behalf of Siyenza.
It is unclear which companies operated in these villages.
The departure of the contractors has left Cetshana poorer as she did not receive a single cent for her work of monitoring the delivery of the material, a job she had been doing since May last year.
“I’ve tried to call the Peddie local office to submit my claims. All they did was ask for my banking details. That was it.
“It’s now eight months on and I don’t have a penny to pay the shop owners who gave me groceries in advance while working for this project,” said Cetshana.
She said having the piles of slabs littering the grazing land was an eyesore and an annoyance to local farmers. “The material was supposed to be kept in an enclosed place which is fenced but for some reason they dumped it all in the open spaces across our villages. All we can do is hope and pray that these companies will come back here again and finish this project as these pit holes are unsafe.
“Failing that, they must come and collect their material because sooner or later people are going to help themselves and use it for other things,” said Cetshana.
Siyenza director Bongani Mpeluza could not be reached for comment yesterday.
ADM spokesman Siya Makhunga acknowledged receipt of the Dispatch’s questions, but had not responded at the time of writing.
Siyenza debris litters hillsides: ‘For some reason they dumped it all in the open spaces’
The slabs were dumped on grazing land near Machibi, Madliki and ePhole in June.
A Daily Dispatch team visiting the area on Monday saw the piles of concrete slabs scattered across the land.
Local ward committee member Vakele Ntsokoma said the material was delivered last June as part of the Amathole District Municipality’s (ADM’s) multimillion-rand toilet provision project.
The Dispatch reported that the ADM had cancelled the tender and ordered contractors out of villages in all seven of the local municipalities in its jurisdiction.
This was after it emerged that the main contractor, the Siyenza group, was not a registered company.
The cancellation also saw all ADM construction projects shelved as the cash to pay service providers dried up.
Nomantombazana Cetshana, a member of a local committee that had monitored delivery of the material, told of how, after more than R500000 worth of the material was delivered, the contractors had disappeared without trace.
Cetshana’s responsibilities as Madliki village’s toilets project member included counting the material during delivery and registering the amount before confirming receipt for payment purposes.
She said the only names she could recall she had been working with were “Siyenza” and “MK veterans”.
Companies owned by former liberation struggle veterans were subcontracted to dig the pit holes and erect the frames of the toilets on behalf of Siyenza.
It is unclear which companies operated in these villages.
The departure of the contractors has left Cetshana poorer as she did not receive a single cent for her work of monitoring the delivery of the material, a job she had been doing since May last year.
“I’ve tried to call the Peddie local office to submit my claims. All they did was ask for my banking details. That was it.
“It’s now eight months on and I don’t have a penny to pay the shop owners who gave me groceries in advance while working for this project,” said Cetshana.
She said having the piles of slabs littering the grazing land was an eyesore and an annoyance to local farmers. “The material was supposed to be kept in an enclosed place which is fenced but for some reason they dumped it all in the open spaces across our villages. All we can do is hope and pray that these companies will come back here again and finish this project as these pit holes are unsafe.
“Failing that, they must come and collect their material because sooner or later people are going to help themselves and use it for other things,” said Cetshana.
Siyenza director Bongani Mpeluza could not be reached for comment yesterday.
ADM spokesman Siya Makhunga acknowledged receipt of the Dispatch’s questions, but had not responded at the time of writing.
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