The Buffalo City Metro Development Agency’s plan to rope in a private investor to help finish building and eventually operate the multimillion-rand Water World Fun Park project has been shot down by parliament.
The agency, which told the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that it would need an additional R40m to complete the abandoned project, had planned to enter into a public-private partnership (PPP), because it was struggling to finance the development.
However, parliament’s finance watchdog said this would be a “miscarriage of justice”.
Led by Rise Mzansi MP and Scopa chair Songezo Zibi, the multiparty committee descended on the Buffalo City Metro on Thursday and Friday, and inspected incomplete projects in Qonce, Mdantsane and East London.
Ratepayers have already paid more than R120m for the still non-operational Water World project, and an additional R33m to the contractor who abandoned the site in 2023.
The Dispatch previously reported that the more than R121m paid for the construction and refurbishment had gone down the drain, with the project, meant to be completed in 2022, in complete ruin.
Though officials claimed in late in 2023 that it was 95% complete, a visit to the site in October 2024 revealed the development was in dire condition.
Some BCM councillors believed the project should be restarted because it was in a “shambolic state”, with many of the buildings vandalised and stripped of electrical cables and water pipes.
Roofs, ceilings, doors and even toilet seats had been removed, windows and mirrors were broken, while machinery, equipment and building material were scattered across the property. The perimeter fence had also been removed.
BCM Development Agency chief executive Ayanda Gqoboka told the MPs on Friday that due to budget limitations, there was a “break in service” and no security on site between April and July 2024.
“Material was left unattended on site, exposing it to various risk elements.”
During the Scopa visit to Water World on Thursday, Gqoboka said if the agency were to complete the project by itself, it would need about R40m. It was accordingly contemplating initiating a PPP to complete the development.
It would cost the investor about R10m to get the facility operational, Gqoboka said, but “nothing has been signed yet”.
During a meeting in Gonubie on Friday, Gqoboka said: “There is significant anticipation from the public, business and other stakeholders for the project to be completed.
“The municipality has indicated that it is in no financial position to fund the project further, especially given its own service delivery challenges.
“Council has thus instructed the BCMDA to look at alternative approaches to completing the project.
“The prevailing view and approach by the BCMDA has been to adopt a private sector investment posture to get the project completed.
“In this regard, BCMDA issued a public call for investment proposals in December 2023.
“This call yielded very limited interest and thus the BCMDA has initiated an approach of prospecting for investors,” Gqoboka said.
He said the plan was to attract private investors by offering long-term lease agreements and options to conduct further site development and commercialise the facility.
“There may need to be further incentives ... to secure investment,” Gqoboka said.
However, the plan was quickly squashed by MPs and the agency board.
An agitated ANC MP, Ntando Maduna, said “handing the facility” to a private company would not benefit the poor, who would be required to pay handsomely to access it.
“This planned PPP would be a miscarriage of justice if we allow it to take place,” he said.
The EFF’s Ntombovuyo Mente said he was deeply concerned about plans to “sell a state asset to the highest bidder”.
“The majority of our poor people will not have access to it if its private. I would advise you to speak to the sports, arts and culture minister [Gayton McKenzie], to assist,” Mente said.
The UDM’s Thandiwe Nontenja said she was stunned that the agency would “want to give away a project 10% from completion”.
The ANC’s Gijimani Skosana said the agency should have engaged communities to get “buy in” from them first.
The agency’s board chair, Mandilakhe Dilima, told Scopa the board was pushing to “abandon the PPP approach”.
“We have advised management to consider a different approach. The PPP issue is off the table for now,” Dilima said.
The MPs grilled the agency over many other projects it managed in the metro.
Searching questions were asked of the R48.9m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure that had been racked up as well as irregular expenditure amounting to R131m — R11.3m of which had been incurred in a single project, the Leighandre “Baby Lee” Jegels Recreational Park, popularly known as the “Stoep”.
The agency’s acting chief financial officer, Aviwe Manciya, said the irregular expenditure had been incurred on contracts awarded through “an improperly constituted bid adjudication committee during the establishment phase”.
The MPs demanded that Scopa be furnished with “all profiles and qualifications” of the BCMDA’s current and former board members and executives.
The sorry state of the city’s unfinished projects left the Scopa members unimpressed, with Zibi describing the oversight visit as “disappointing and heartbreaking” because of the metro’s potential as a tourism, culture and industrial development hub.
Zibi said there were problems with project implementation, project management, project planning, contract management, weak political oversight and poor maintenance.
In addition, the BCM lacked a willingness to hold those involved accountable.
“It appears that there’s been a culture of impunity.
“We are going to call them to parliament again and again until things get right ... We are going to hold all of those people accountable.”
Daily Dispatch
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.