21 Mar 2018

Kweneng District Council (KDC) secretary, Mr Goleba Kgari says the council has reached a conclusion to compensate victims of damaged properties affected by construction of the P115 million Molepolole Bus Terminus.

 

Speaking during an interview following a concern raised by Borakalalo ward councillor, Mr Arafat Khan over delayed compensation of the affected, Mr Kgari stated that the issue had been delayed by unforeseen circumstances.

However, he said they working working towards assessing the extent of damage.

 

He acknowledged the delay saying they believed it was the responsibility of the contractor.

 

However, he said since the matter was dragging before court the council was then obliged to make assessment to establish the extent of damages and act accordingly. 

 

“I acknowledge delay in bringing the matter to finality due to the contractor’s failure to fulfill the contractual obligation because we had hoped it was his responsibility as part of the work,” he said. 

 

He stated that they had then resorted to assessing the damaged properties and compensate the people accordingly while awaiting court verdict over a filed litigation between Estate Construction and KDC over the disputed P13.6 million. 

 

The council secretary further said they were bound to take action to ensure that the matter was brought to finality. 

 

He said they were currently not in a position to state the amount required for compensating the victims as it was something that would be determined by the outcome of the assessment.

 

He said they had initially planned meeting the affected individuals on the matter but reversed the decision to be able to come up with something concrete.

 

Mr Kgari highlighted that KDC was consulting with BOA as the project consultant for advisory role.

 

Since the matter was before court, he noted that they were unable to divulge more information to avoid prejudice.

 

He further pointed out that they were optimistic that the judgement would be in favour of KDC as they had appealed the High Court verdict.   

 

Councillor Khan had complained that the matter that had been dragging for over two years had negatively impacted on those with rented houses that had since developed defects as they no longer generate income for the households. ENDS