Pretoria – The City of Tshwane was yesterday in discussions with service providers catering at seven centres housing homeless people within the capital regarding their outstanding payments.
The centres were Lukas van der Berg, Akasia Hall, Lyttelton Sport Park, NG Kerk, Sebothoma Centre, Capital Park and Leuweh Oord.
At the time of going to print, the outcome of the talks was not yet known.
When the country went into lockdown in March, the City moved homeless people to these centres to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Yesterday, a representative of the service providers, Emmanuel Makuwa, said they had yet to receive payment.
“We received letters on August 6 from the office of the City manager stating they had set a 30% benchmark on the mark-up we gave them initially.”
Receipts and bank statements were also requested for verification. “We did what they said and gave our bank statements and receipts to prove we rendered the service.
“They went back and audited again without calling us; they then sent letters to say they made a benchmark and worked on our expenditures and gave us a mere 30%.”
He said it was below their expenditure for services rendered.
“They want to pay one of us R29 000 for 1 600 meals a day. When you divide it, it comes to R19 per plate and when you check the menu that we gave them it costs way more.
“They were hard on us on the menu and ingredients. We complied, and when you do your maths it’s an average of R19 per plate; where can you get a R19 meal on this Earth?
“We just want to be paid, they sent us emails to confirm to our creditors that we would be paid by month-end but we have still not been paid.”
He said they had been facing tough times, some lost their vehicles and others houses or were unable to pay rent. “It has been difficult for us, that is why we came here to plead for our payments that we rightfully deserve.”
Caroline Tlokwe said it had been a tough six months to get payment for services rendered. “We've been borrowing money; gone to loan sharks where interest rates have soared. It is very frustrating.”
At the time, some service providers rented kitchens to prepare food with costs reaching R20 000 and groceries fetching over R60 000 a day.
Pretoria News