ANC MP Jackson Mthembu told parliament this week that so far more than 7000 toilets had been built by the Siyenza Group since it was awarded a tender last year.
While the Saturday Dispatch could not count all the toilets that had been built so far, it indeed found a number of structures had gone up in villages around the Amathole District Municipality.
This is part of a R631-million tender to build 66000 toilets in eight municipalities under the ADM.
Delivering his statement on Thursday afternoon, Mthembu said the sanitation project was a means to restore the dignity of rural people in the region.
“So far over 7000 toilets are on the ground and have been verified and claimed for. Another 13000 are on the ground, but have not been verified and not been claimed for as yet. Therefore there is no truth to the notion that there are no toilets on the ground in Amathole District,” said Mthembu.
He was responding to a question posed by the DA earlier, following an exposé in this newspaper two weeks ago about how the Siyenza Group, which has links to some senior ANC leaders, had been awarded the contract without normal procurement processes being followed.
While Mthembu hailed the delivery by Siyenza, on the ground the situation is the exact opposite, with villagers telling a different story. In the past two weeks a Dispatch team visited a number of villages around King William’s Town and in Kwelerha. Our team found structures already standing. In some villages we witnessed groups of men erecting toilets. The team also found some of the toilets built by Siyenza Group had collapsed – weeks after being erected.
Some residents complained they were still waiting to be paid by Siyenza Group, after being asked to dig holes for toilets.
This week, Siyenza Group CEO Bongani Mpeluza would not speak to the Dispatch. Text messages and calls to his cellphone went unanswered.
Amathole District Municipality said it would not respond to questions on the sanitation project as the matter was under review by the office of the auditor-general.
For two weeks our teams were, in certain villages, also greeted by empty pits, which had been left uncovered, since being dug in January. These could potentially pose a risk to residents, especially children.
During a visit to Machibi, near KWT, at the end of last month, it was found only one toilet had been erected. Residents said this one was built to be used to demonstrate how the structures should be built.
Residents complained that they had not been paid. “We were told that we are going to be paid for the holes, then after erecting the toilet, they will again pay us for that.
“Now we see material being delivered but they have not paid us for the first job ,” one resident said.
The Saturday Dispatch was reliably told that in Ward 1 in Debe and Ward 13 in Alice, there were only pit holes and not a single toilet. In Kwelerha village toilets were erected in most houses, but some were collapsing or caving in. Residents told Saturday Dispatch they were scared to use some of the toilets because they were collapsing.
“The reason these toilets are collapsing is because the people that were building them did not build a foundation for the structure. They just put the structure on top of the hole, so that is why they just collapse,” one resident said.
The R631-million project awarded to Siyenza Group by the ADM without following normal tender process, was meant to benefit the rural communities of the region. The money is meant to be used to build toilets in areas like Nkonkobe, Mnquma, Amahlathi, Great Kei, Ngqushwa and Mbashe.
Mnquma, which includes Butterworth and its surrounding villages, is set to benefit the most from the sanitation project, with about R257-million channelled to the local municipality. — siphem@dispatch.co.za