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The more than R125m pumped into the construction and refurbishment of the Water World fun park appears to have gone down the drain, with the project, meant to be completed in 2022, now in complete ruin.
Though late in 2023 it was said that the project was 95% complete, it is in such a bad state now that some members of the Buffalo City Metro council feel it should be restarted from scratch.
The municipality’s finance watchdog, the municipal public accounts committee (Mpac), and Buffalo City Metro Development Agency (BCMDA) board members conducted an oversight visit at the facility on Tuesday.
A meeting where agency bosses were to give answers on how more than R125m had been spent with so little to show for it had been scheduled, but development agency CEO Ayanda Gqoboka and board chair Mandilakhe Dilima were no-shows.
The two, according to Mpac chair and ANC councillor Sakhumzi Caga, had agreed to join the oversight team but bailed at the last minute, citing double bookings and prior commitments.
All those present were shocked by the state of the facility.
Mpac members, including DA councillor Anathi Majeke and the EFF’s Mziyanda Hlekiso, also raised concerns about the non-availability of development agency bosses, saying it showed the agency did not take the watchdog committee and, by extension, the BCM council seriously.
Another meeting between the two parties will be scheduled, likely for next week, as committee members were not pleased that Mxolisi Sibam and Ngcane Madikizela-Rene were the only BCMDA board members in attendance.
Caga’s committee visited the facility in September but he said on Tuesday that he was flabbergasted to see how much worse things were now.
He said the committee members had been shocked in September but did not expect to find it in a more shambolic state.
Mpac members also raised concerns that there were no security guards, which they said had resulted in the complete vandalism of the multimillion-rand facility.
During Tuesday’s visit, it was discovered that many of the buildings in the precinct had been vandalised and stripped of electrical cables and water pipes.
Roofs, ceilings, doors and even toilet seats were removed.
Windows and mirrors were broken, while plant machinery, equipment and building material worth hundreds of thousands were scattered across the property.
The property’s perimeter fence had been completely removed.
DA councillor Geoff Walton said the only thing BCM was good at was wasting ratepayers’ money.
“It is a destruction site and complete waste of taxpayers’ money.
“I think we need to decide to take whatever we can from here and abandon the rest to nature because if we do not have security here, we will incur more damage,” Walton said.
“It’s clear we will need to do everything all over again ... I am not sure this could be salvaged.”
Hlekiso said the situation was appalling and “a fresh start will be needed”.
He also said the EFF would open a criminal case against BCM authorities over suspicions of corruption, money laundering and fraud relating to the failed project.
“There is just no way that over R125m could vanish just like that ... This project will need to be started from scratch.”
Caga said action should be taken against all those responsible.
“It is a very sad state of affairs to have invested over R125m of our own money to beautify this place in an attempt to attract tourists and boost the local economy only to find ourselves in this predicament.
“This is a disaster ... the millions spent here have gone down the drain.”
Majeke said: “The state of this site is completely appalling. It just goes to show the lack of project management on the side of BCMDA.
“We need to know from BCMDA if they have abandoned the site or whether they have conceded that we cannot further salvage this.
“The state that this facility is in, is quite shocking.”
BCMDA board member Madikizela-Rene, who conceded that the site had “deteriorated”, revealed that the litigation process between them and the contractor, Mvusuludzo Projects, had since been settled.
Madikizela-Rene, who said the absence of their bosses was “hindering responses we need to provide to the committee”, also revealed that the matter had since been reported to the Special Investigating Unit in a bid to recover some of the money irregularly paid.
“We agree that the money paid here does not correlate to the work done.
“There is now a process to recover what we lost illegally here,” she said.
The standoff between BCMDA and the contractor was allegedly over unpaid fees, with the company boss, Albert Mulaudzi, on Tuesday saying the agency had still not paid the money it owed.
While the dispute dragged on for years, Mulaudzi said they had terminated the deal and involved the South African Institution of Civil Engineering after the agency defaulted on its contractual obligations.
He said the company had removed its security guards from the site in September “due to funding issues”.
Commenting on the move to get the SIU to investigate the project and to recover financial losses, Mulaudzi insisted that there was no wrongdoing on the company’s part. — Additional reporting by Vuyolwethu Sangotsha
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