O.R. Tambo District Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Mesuli Ngqondwana, continues his standing project-monitoring visits across the district. Today, he is joined by King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Mkhanyiseli Dudumayo, at the Ngangelizwe Sewer Reticulation Upgrade Project.
The project represents a major investment in safer sanitation, restored dignity, local employment and SMME participation.
However, the visit is not ceremonial.
Community members raised serious concerns about the manner in which the contractor is implementing the project, including alleged non-payment of workers and the limited number of local people employed compared with the employment commitments attached to the project.
The Executive Mayors are therefore interrogating progress, expenditure, contractor performance, local beneficiation and the challenges affecting delivery, including hard-rock excavation along Gcaleka Street and the availability of appropriate machinery.
The message is firm: a project cannot be celebrated only for the infrastructure it installs while workers remain unpaid and promised local opportunities fail to reach the community.
Public investment must deliver working infrastructure, fair employment, meaningful SMME participation and accountability to the people it is intended to serve.