Tshwane's binmen down tools over non-payment

schumi

schumi

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Pretoria – After three months of scraping by on reserves, waste management sub-contractors responsible for waste removal in the capital downed tools on Monday.

They said they had gone for months without being paid by the city’s main contractor, Moipone Group of Companies, hired by the city.

Contractor Dan Mawela said the 28 sub-contractors affected had been trying to survive on their cash reserves to ensure workers and vehicles used for waste collection kept operating despite the lack of payment.

“The workers are our responsibility and that is why we have tried our best to keep paying them, using whatever means we could."

"But we can’t keep going on as if it’s business as usual without being paid.”

“We’ve written to them and sent our invoices but we have received no notification or information whatsoever. We tried to subsidise and assist the main contractor but our cash reserves are depleted and we need a way forward,” he said.

Mawela said although the city had apparently paid the main contractor, they had failed to process the payments on their side.

“We have 150 trucks and we need the money to pay the workers, maintain trucks, pour fuel and pay the banks for the trucks. It’s not fair for us to be expected to continue providing much needed services without payment or any sort of communication at all about what the problem is.”
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More at: http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/tshwanes-binmen-down-tools-over-non-payment-8290636
 
Ah bugger, no garbage collection and here I thought it was the public holiday.
 
And I bet the executives at Moipone Group are living the highlife.
 
thechamp said:
Contractors contracted to other contractors....
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Having sub-contractors and/or joint ventures is normal.

It's only a problem it the first contractor is a friend or family member of some politician and he got the job at a highly inflated price and then still wants to keep everything for himself
 
rietrot said:
Having sub-contractors and/or joint ventures is normal.

It's only a problem it the first contractor is a friend or family member of some politician and he got the job at a highly inflated price and then still wants to keep everything for himself
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Well since it is a problem and it's already hampering service delivery and obviously costing more, a very simple solution has already been mentioned here.

I don't believe you can take the corruption and fraud out of the tender system, even if there is a way it's time consuming and will probably cost more, why don't we stick with simpler solutions?
 
What happened to the days when municipalities did their own garbage collection using their own equipment and people??
 
Oink oink.

Question is, what are the DA going to do about it?
 
How the hell are these guys vetted?? maybe it is time the rate payers get to have say in these matters.
 
AlphaBravo said:
How the hell are these guys vetted?? maybe it is time the rate payers get to have say in these matters.
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Old anc contract and the points of getting the contract are:-
Be a cadre
Share in your thievery
Don't mention to anyone
 
Ancalagon said:
Oink oink.

Question is, what are the DA going to do about it?
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Actually forgot this was now a DA run municipality. Why was this corrupt tender/contract not suspended and the municipalities own staff used as things are supposed to be?

Just out of curiosity, is the garbage collection in cape town done by third party contractors?
 
ambroseg1 said:
Actually forgot this was now a DA run municipality. Why was this corrupt tender/contract not suspended and the municipalities own staff used as things are supposed to be?

Just out of curiosity, is the garbage collection in cape town done by third party contractors?
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I imagine they will be looking at cancelling this contract and dealing directly with the service providers in future. But, there might be contract cancellation penalties.

That being said, depending on the contract, this middleman sounds like they would already be in breach of contract. I mean, the city has been paying them, but they have not been paying the service providers. Based on that, the city might be able to get a judge to declare the contract in breach. Or something, not a lawyer.

But, the other thing to remember is that because this contract was a BEE contract and thus setup to benefit someone, it probably has no performance requirements which the middleman is expected to uphold.
 
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