MATATIELE, MALUTI ROAD CONSTRUCTION HIT BY ANOTHER SNAG
"Will the road construction between Matatiele and Maluti ever be completed? Many of the residents are now having doubts as the construction company is getting into more troubles.
MATATIELE: In less than two weeks after announcing that the road construction between Matatiele and Maluti in the Eastern Cape is going to be complete by August , the construction company Kluise and Civils is hit by another snag.
Workers have on Monday morning decided to lock the gates of the Maluti based company’s offices claiming that they have not received salaries for the month of March. When The Informer was visiting the offices, only workers operating stop and go robot could be seen working on the road. There were no big machines and workers doing their work in construction side.
One of the workers Thandeka Luzeka, who was interviewed by The Informer said the company is struggling financially. She said last week one of the managers told them that there is no money to buy diesel for machines to work. “There is no diesel as we speak”, she said.
Luzeka said the company has paid workers 50% of their March salaries and promised to pay the balance on April. “On April some of us received payments of R200, R100 without any explanation. Today we have decided to close this gate till we are paid our money”, she said.
Luzeka said, even though there is no explanation but you can see Kluise Civils is struggling financially. “It has been difficult for the company to give us our salaries since 2020. We have never enjoyed our salaries here, we have to fight before we get paid”, she concluded.
Kluise Civils, a KwaZulu Natal company which was given a contract by the Eastern Cape Department of Transport to construct Matatiele, Maluti road was at loggerhead with SMMEs on February after they failed to pay them. Commenting about this, site manager Ravie Pillay confirmed on February that the company had cash flow problems due to Covid 19. During that interview Ravie said funds were organised for SMMEs and they were all paid and their relations with SMMEs have come back to normal. SMMEs engaged in the same action of closing the gates of the company’s office resulting to work progress stopping for two weeks.
Two weeks ago Matatiele Local Municipality Mayor Sonwabile Mngenela visited the road construction as part of inspecting the progress. He was told that the construction of the road is going to be completed in August.
Monday’s action has left the Matatiele communities with doubts that this road will ever be completed. Attempts to get Kluise side of the story could not succeed as the company refused to respond. Mayor Sonwabile Mngenela could not be found to comment about the matter as he could not answer his phone.
