While ANC-led uMzimkhulu Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has been paying more than R50 million to construct a community hall, residents say the money could have been better spent addressing severe service delivery backlogs.
"Scores of residents are struggling to access basic services. Gravel roads are in a bad state and we're competing for water with livestock. But the municipality saw fit to spend millions on a hall that has been under construction for more than 10 years. It keeps pouring money into it. That cannot be right," charged community activist Xolani Ndovela said.
The uMzimkhulu memorial hall, which residents have dubbed a "hall of shame", is believed to have triggered the September 2017 murder of Sindiso Magaqa, a councillor and a former ANC Youth League secretary-general. He had been questioning the alleged fraud and corruption associated with the project. Millions were apparently paid to companies linked to politicians without them having done any work. Magaqa was reportedly targeted and killed for speaking out.
Another activist, Vela Ngxongo, told the Mail & Guardian that uMzimkhulu, like many other areas, had a high unemployment rate.
"This money would have been used to create jobs. Young people finish matric and hope to work for nearby farms. The situation is that bad. Even the municipal and the expanded public works jobs are given to only those connected to politicians and card-carrying members of certain political parties," Ngxongo said.
UMzimkhulu is a predominantly rural municipality under the Harry Gwala district. Approximately 90.8% of the population lives in rural areas. The local economy relies on the public sector, subsistence agriculture and the retail industry. The council operates on an annual budget of around R900m.
Thabiso Zulu, Magaqa's long-time friend and family spokesperson, said the memorial hall reflected malfeasance, failure of accountability and monitoring.
"The new exorbitant figure of R53 million makes a mockery of all our tears and blood of many years fighting for accountability around this hall. It is equal to spitting on the grave of martyr Sindiso Magaqa.
“We call on the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] and DCPI [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation/The Hawks] to fast-track charging and holding accountable those responsible for this malfeasance," Zulu said.
The problematic and corruption-ridden memorial hall project has also featured in the public protector’s investigation. The public protector made damning findings about the manner in which the municipality had advertised and sourced contractors for the controversial project. The construction work started in 2012. Fourteen years later, it still has not been completed.
"The municipality failed to follow a competitive bidding process in the appointment of the service providers, Loyiso Consulting and Buyeye Consulting. Both these entities were previously involved in the project and therefore had intimate knowledge about the project when they submitted proposals to the municipality," the public protector noted in her findings.
Initially, the project had been projected to cost R1.4m. The amount escalated to about R37m. The public protector’s report also notes that on 21 August 2012, Loyiso Consulting was awarded a contract in excess of R14m. A year later, on 15 November 2013, the municipality awarded another contract, this one worth R17.9m, to the same contractor who then abandoned the project. According to information supplied to the public protector, the director of the company had a romantic relationship with the municipal head of infrastructure at the time, raising issues of conflict of interest.
In the same year, R15m was paid to Sfiso Building Contractors to complete the work left by Loyiso Consulting. The contractor had no contractual agreement with the municipality. The municipality also did not conduct any due diligence in awarding the contract, the public protector said.
On 4 March 2016, the municipality advertised another tender and awarded the contract to Buyeye Consulting. The council made various upfront payments to the entity over three days — R6m on the Wednesday, R7m on the Thursday and R3 million on the Friday — even though no work had been done.
Between 10 and 30 June, the entity received payments of R650 000, R1. 6m and R1.7m. The payments were made without the company submitting progress payment certificates as proof that the work was completed.
Mpumelelo Dubazana, the DA councillor in the council, told the M&G that the project was doomed from the start.
"It was a case of mismatched priorities. You can't have a municipality prioritising a community hall worth millions in an impoverished area such as uMzimkhulu. We started noticing that something was amiss when municipal funds were diverted to complete this exorbitant project. The Municipal Infrastructure Grant should have been used as per the initial approval," Dubazana said.
He said it had been one of the reasons that the DA had opposed putting more money into the project.
Municipal spokesperson Willie Mgcina conceded that the project was running behind schedule. He however would not divulge how much has been spent on the project and whether there were plans to pour more money into the project.
"Indeed, this project has gone on for far too long. But, it is with great pleasure that before September there will be partial utilisation of this historical hall, hence processes are at an advanced stage towards completion," he said.