DA probes Hopetown school tender irregularities
18 February 2022
Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English & Afrikaans from Harold McGluwa, MPL.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is probing the alleged re-awarding of a tender for a failed school construction project to the very company that previously absconded from the project, letting it go to ruin. See pics here, here, here and here.
Based on information received by the DA, it appears that the school hall at Steynville High School in Hopetown, which only got as far as a metal frame with a roof, was left to stand for two years without being completed. As a result, the structure is visibly rusted due to exposure to the elements and requires a full frame replacement before the project can proceed.
Given the blatant inability of the former contractor to complete this project, it is mind-blowing that government could even consider re-awarding a new tender for the rectification of the work already done and the completion of the project, that should have been finished long ago, to the offending company.
We can only wonder why this company, or its directors, were not blacklisted instead of being given a second chance to unduly benefit from the state’s increasingly scarce financial resources?
At the end of the day, it is our children who bear the brunt of corrupt governance because it is them who have no hall in which to convene for assemblies or in which to write matric examinations.
The DA has prepared parliamentary questions for the Education and Roads and Public Works departments. Amongst other things, we are querying the value of the past and current contracts, what went wrong previously as well as tender processes followed. All information in our possession will be handed over to the Premier and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in due course.
We must not allow funds meant for the betterment of education to be re-directed to the pockets of self-interested individuals.
Issued by Harold McGluwa, DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 18 February 2022
