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Buffalo City Metro paid almost R400m to build a regional bulk sewerage scheme to service Bhisho, Qonce and surrounding villages and townships, but five years after its scheduled completion date the facility is a non-operational white elephant.
The Zwelitsha regional wastewater treatment works project, on the outskirts of Zwelitsha and Phakamisa townships near Qonce, was spearheaded by late former BCM mayor Alfred Mtsi in 2016 to ease pressure on four overloaded sewerage plants nearby.
It was also meant to unlock bottlenecks in the development of housing and other facilities in Bhisho and Qonce.
Developments in the area have had to be postponed due to the lack of an adequate bulk sewerage system to accommodate them.
In 2017, provincial water and sanitation department head Portia Makhanya revealed that BCM had delayed approving plans for construction of the multibillion-rand Bhisho Office Park precinct due to a lack of bulk water and sanitation infrastructure in the area.
The bulk sewerage scheme project, constructed next to the old Zwelitsha plant and initially meant to be completed in 2019, was red-flagged by auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke in her recent audit assessments.
Delivering her consolidated general report on local government audit outcomes for the 2022/2023 assessment year recently, Maluleke flagged the Zwelitsha project as one that greatly concerned her team.
The AG said it was worrying that the project remained incomplete after more than R380m had been spent on it.
“The planned project completion date of January 2019 was later changed to March 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, community unrest, contractor non-performance, procurement irregularities and subsequent litigation processes.
“At the time of our site visit in November 2023, the project had not been completed and there was evidence of theft and vandalism because the site was not secured.”
Maluleke said the contracted service provider, whose name is known to the Dispatch, “was paid the full amount of R387.47m despite having abandoned the site”.
The company could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
When officials visited the project, a replacement contractor had yet to be appointed by city authorities “due to limited funds and ongoing litigation between the metro and the original contractor”, Maluleke said.
When municipalities did not maintain or complete their water and sanitation infrastructure projects, she said, the impact was reflected in lower service-level standards, increased water and electricity losses, excessive costs for replacing or upgrading infrastructure and equipment and an increased risk of mechanical breakdowns.
It also posed a risk to community health and could potentially harm the environment.
The greater Qonce area is now served by four wastewater treatment works — the Schornville, Zwelitsha, Breidbach and Bhisho plants.
These are said to have reached their sell-by dates and are battling to cope with the development that has taken place in these areas in recent years.
The main objective of the stalled project, according to a May 2021 council report, was to amalgamate these four works into one regional works.
It was also meant to ease congestion at the plants and allow for more housing developments.
DA councillor Terence Fritz said that in recent years a moratorium had been issued on any housing developments in the area until a proper sewerage and sanitation system could accommodate the expansion.
Fritz said he had been reliably informed by a senior metro official that an additional R60m was needed to complete the project.
In 2017, Makhanya disclosed that 38 housing development projects across the province had to be halted due to a lack of bulk water and sanitation infrastructure in those areas, as there was “no integrated planning” between housing developers, municipalities and the water and sanitation department.
On Wednesday, metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the project was meant to “replace the inefficient existing smaller works and immediately allow the Bhisho precinct unhindered development”.
“The work on the facility was progressing well and the facility was about two months away from completion and commissioning, but due to payment disputes, the contractor terminated the contract and instituted legal action against BCM to secure the payment, and that process is currently being finalised.
“The contractor was paid for work on a monthly basis and these amounts were in line with the construction progress of the works achieved at the end of each month, in terms of the items in the contract’s bill of quantities.
“The payment certificates thus reflected the extent of work undertaken and completed at the time ... Unfortunately, we cannot disclose the amounts in question.”
Ngwenya said the facility, once fully operational, “will provide capacity for present and future population growth”.
“The Zwelitsha site is ideally located to receive all the sewerage flows under gravity, to save on operation and maintenance costs.”
Reflecting on the legal action, Ngwenya said “there were disputes and different interpretations”.
BCM and the service provider were in negotiations, “and an outcome of this is a possible settlement amount which might be finalised soon”.
When the Dispatch visited the facility this week ,there were clear signs of cable theft and vandalism.
A computer control room had been vandalised, while equipment was said to have been stolen during burglaries.
Ngwenya, however, said the metro had added additional security personnel to protect the infrastructure until a new service provider was appointed to complete the works.
Security guards were on site at the time of the Dispatch visit.
Ngwenya said: “We are determined to ensure that this project is finalised and assists to unlock limitations in the region.”
Fritz said housing developments around the area had been severely affected.
“People were even shot at while protesting for houses, which were delayed due to the lack of this bulk infrastructure.
“Now houses are being built in our area, but we believe that the sanitation system has since been diverted to another plant, even though they had told us we would have to wait.”
Ginsberg resident Sonwabo Mtuze said the community had been left “frustrated and dejected” because they had been waiting for houses for many years.
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