Johannesburg - The Special Investigative Unit is going after the alleged culprits in the multibillion-rand failed Giyani water project. This follows a raid at the offices of Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), an agency of the Department of Water and Sanitation, in Limpopo.
The LNW’s Polokwane headquarters were raided on Monday as part of the investigation by the SIU.
Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit got a court order last week Friday to get documents relating to the controversial R3 billion water project.
“We managed to get in there and we got files. Our technical guys then mirrored their server, which allowed us access to documents we wanted. Because the LNW were ducking and diving, we had to go and convince the court to grant us this order, it’s not easy to convince the judge,” said
Kganyago.
The project was aimed at providing clean running water to 55 villages in Giyani in the Mopani District Municipality. But billions of rand later, trenches still remained uncovered and some areas still had no water.
Those who did get water, like Miekie Rikhotso from Siyandani village near Giyani, complained that it was dirty.
“The water coming from our taps is dirty. Few households have installed private boreholes which cost us around R20000; many of us don’t have such kind of money,” said Rikhotso.
She told Sunday Independent that it was better when the original contractor, Khato Civils, was on site.
Former president Jacob Zuma commissioned the SIU to investigate the multi-million bulk water project when it was launched in 2014. The SIU was to investigate claims of corruption in project after the media sent questions to the LNW implicating its then-chairperson Kennedy Tshivhase, who was
suspended.
The project has been marred by allegations of tender irregularities and price inflation. The department awarded the contract to LTE Consulting, which subcontracted Khato Civils and South Zambezi Engineering, the two sister companies owned by businessman Simbi Phiri.
Khato Civils halted its operations when a boy fell into a trench it allegedly left open at Homu village at the beginning of this year.
Mopani municipality spokesperson Odas Ngobeni claimed that most villages continued to get water delivered through the old infrastructure. He also claimed that none of their officials were implicated in any wrongdoing related to the project.
“The executive mayor has recently engaged with officials from LNW and the department to be briefed and to get a progress report. The indication was that the project will be complete by the end of 2020. We are all anxious, including our communities for we believe that the completion of this project will boost our sustained efforts of providing water to the people of our district,” said Ngobeni.
Kganyago added that the SIU would later seek a court order to declare LTE’s contract irregular and set it aside.
“The process was not followed. When we come across criminality will refer them to the National Prosecution Authority. The preliminary report has been sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa.”
Political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga said: “This is a big project that has seen a waste of money, the project that contributed dearly to bankruptcy of Limpopo infrastructure spending, yet no returns for the people around as they continue to struggle with water. It’s time there are consequences, law must take its course.”