The Amatola Water Board has rejected implementation of the scandal-tainted R91.6m sanitation project for the troubled Amathole District Municipality.
Last year, then water and sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane, decided the Amatola Water Board would be the implementing agents of the toilet project previously awarded to the politically-connected Siyenza Group.
However, incumbent minister Gugile Nkwinti withdrew that directive at the request of the board.
The refusal to implement the project was confirmed by the board’s chief executive, Zitumane, in an exclusive interview about her nine months in the job.
Last year the Dispatch reported that ADM mayor Nomfusi Nxawe launched Phase 2 of the troubled accelerated sanitation programme.
She said the municipality was ready to resume with the sanitation project after phase one, worth R631m, was initially awarded to Siyenza Group. The work was never completed.
ADM municipal manager Thandekile Mnyimba, who had just been appointed at the time, said the project would be funded by the ministry and would go straight to the Amatola Water Board.
“The ADM is no longer part of that project now, we are out of that,” he said at the time. However, water board boss Vuyo Zitumane said Amatola Water wanted nothing to do with the project .
“There was a ministerial directive which was unfunded.
“There was some assessment of the work that was previously done by Siyenza, we appointed consultants and they developed a business plan. However with the political changes and current situation, we went back to the minister to say we have our own problems and therefore it is not in our interest to inherit sanitation which has never been our core strength.
“As recent as two weeks [ago] that directive has been withdrawn so it’s no longer going to be implemented by us, it’s going back.
“In fact, ADM made a request that they want to implement that programme so it has gone back,” Zitumane said.
She said the water board had done an assessment of the work that was done by ADM detailing how many toilets were built, the material left, how the programme be implemented going forward and the cost implication of finalising the project.
“We want nothing to do with that programme. It’s too complicated, we have our own challenges,” Zitumane said.
Last year, Nxawe said 2,000 toilets would be built in the Raymond Mhlaba municipality, another 2,000 in Amahlathi, 1,400 in Mnquma and 2,900 in Mbhashe municipalities.She said during the roll out programme, more than 68,000 households would benefit at an estimated cost of R91.6m.
On Thursday, acting ADM spokesperson Noni Vuso said the matter would be discussed in a council meeting on Friday...