20 Sep 2018

Acting chief roads engineer in the Department of Roads in the North East, Mr Noel Hamathi, has refuted reports that government has terminated the Masunga-Tshesebe road project contract with Bash contractors.

As a matter of fact, he said, government had issued a default notice to M/s Bash Carriers (Pty) Ltd contrary to media reports that the contract was terminated.

Addressing North East District councillors in Masunga on September 19, he stated that the intention to terminate notice was due to the fact that the contractor failed to meet contractual terms.

He said there was a difference between a contract being terminated and an intention to terminate adding that an intention was a last warning to the contractor to stress that failure to meet set goals stringent measures would be taken.

Mr Hamathi said government had followed proper procedures to reach a decision since the contractor had in the past received warnings from the ministry for failure to deliver on some points.

He highlighted that the default notice was legal because the contract was binding the two parties involved being government and the contractor.

Further, he said the contractor submitted a tender for the project and indicated that they would deliver on the project which they won hence it was proper for them to deliver of which failure to do so warranted disciplinary action.

Specially elected Councillor Jenamiso Jerry and Mapoka-Nlapkhwane ward councillor Paulos Nkoni pleaded with government not to terminate the contract citing that government had failed to release borrow pits for the contractor to mine gravel.

However they said government should map way forward to investigate why the contractor was failing to deliver.

Councillor Isaac Pelaelo of Tsamaya stated that in a case where government would in future resolve to terminate the contract it could cause more harm than good.

He said termination would delay the completion of the road further because the tendering process would have to be followed from beginning in order to award it to a different company.

Mr Pelaelo suggested that government should survey the old borrow pits that were used during the construction of the A1 road to source out gravel from them.

Responding to questions from councillors, Mr Hamathi stated that one business man in Tshesebe offered M/s Bash Carriers (Pty) Ltd access to his farm for them to mine gravel which was supposed to service the first 15 kilometres of the road construction.

However the engineer indicated that the contractor had not been able to complete this 15 kilometres despite having been offered  gravel which he said was one of the reasons that warranted for a default notice.

Mr Hamathi further stated that three more borrow pits were recently approved by the Department of Mines on top of the two from the Tshesebe.

Therefore he said councilors should not cite lack of gravel as a reason for the contractor failing to deliver on the project because government had solved the matter by releasing the mining rights.

The engineer informed the councilors that as per their request, they had invited the Minister of Transport and Communications to come and address them and still awaiting confirmation from him. ENDS