The upgrade project at the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant, initially contracted to Blackhead Consulting associated with businessman Edwin Sodi, is currently progressing ahead of schedule.
City of Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya, who visited the project on Thursday, announced that Phase 1A of the project initially expected to be completed in April this year, was 98% complete.
In October 2019, Blackhead Consulting was appointed for the upgrade but its contract was terminated following substantial delays with the quality of the work on the site due to continuous stalling.
Moya said the timely completion of Phase 1A has enabled the city to accelerate the start of Phase 1B, which was originally scheduled for September 2025.
As a result, Phase 1B will now commence in March, a full five months ahead of schedule.
“There is progress that we have had on the issue of security because we know the issue of theft and vandalism was rife in the area. There was mechanical and electrical work that was done,” Moya said.
She took stock of the Rooiwal work a week after she launched phase one of the Klipdrift Package Plant, which brought clean water to the residents of Hammanskraal after almost two decades of being forced to use dirty water.
The dirty water in Hammanskraal has constantly been attributed to Rooiwal’s lack of capacity to purify water.
The ongoing work at Rooiwal is part of broader efforts to resolve water pollution issues in Hammanskraal, where a cholera outbreak occurred two years ago, resulting in the deaths of more than 20 people.
The Department of Water and Sanitation and the city are working together to repair and upgrade the Rooiwal plant, with estimated costs reaching R4 billion.
Moya talked about the importance of keeping residents informed about the progress being made, particularly since the community has been severely impacted by the project’s challenges.
“There is a lot of harm that this project has caused to the community. So, the project that is within control of the city can’t be the weakest link in ensuring that we resolve issues of Hammanskraal water,” she said.
She said the municipality has allocated an amount of R450 million towards the project and it has been utilised efficiently, providing value for the money spent.
She commented on the SA Local Government Bargaining Council’s recent ruling ordering the city to reinstate five senior employees suspended over misconduct allegations related to an irregular R295 million tender for the Rooiwal upgrade.
According to the ruling, workers must return to work on January 20.
Moya said the city received an order stipulating that implicated officials must return to work by January 20, accompanied by a punitive cost of R2 million.
However, she expressed confusion over the additional R2m penalty, especially since the officials in question have been on suspension with full pay.
She said: “The part we didn’t understand is that if people have been on suspension on full pay, why would you give them R2m extra, for instance. We gave that to our senior legal counsel to explore and say what are the prospects in the space.”
She said the city will issue an official statement on the fate of the implicated officials four days before January 20.