Municipality blew R38 million on South Africa’s “most expensive shack”
A municipality in the North West spent R38 million on a small prefabricated building in Vryburg, which it said is being used as its new call centre, City Press reports.
Sources at the municipality who have raised red flags about the project have dubbed it the country’s most expensive “mkhukhu”, the word used in many South African languages to describe an informal house built with a metal roof material or mud.
The Mompati District Municipality awarded a tender for the establishment, operation and maintenance of the call centre facility for a period of 36 months for an amount of R38.753 million in February 2022 to Sandton-based wCyber Solutions.
The project was part of a joint venture with the Greendroplets Project.
City Press reported that the owner of Greendroplets is allegedly related to a high-ranking official at the municipality.
In addition to the R38 million cost of constructing the structure, City Press has also seen invoices that the company is paying R1.4 million in monthly fees for the equipment needed to run the call centre.
The monthly invoiced amounts for the call centre equipment were as follows:
- R258,974 for eight Lenovo desktops;
- R524,435 for car radios in the emergency vehicles;
- R324,566 for handheld walkie-talkies;
- R3,758 for eight mice;
- R6,800 for eight keyboards;
- R36,952 for eight “Logic Pro” headphones;
- R16,253 for one Huawei Router; and
- R24,910 for fibre and Internet
Senior municipal managers reportedly told City Press that some of the equipment listed on the invoices had not been delivered.
“There’s no municipal car that has a radio fitted. None of the things they claim to have [bought] are available,” one said.
Citing senior officials, City Press also reported that the new call centre had not rendered any services despite invoices being paid every month.
Other insiders said there was no need for a new call centre because there was already one in the same yard where the new facility was built. It employed full-time workers paid by the municipality.
While the municipality has denied anything untoward about the building’s tender process, multiple officials reportedly told City Press that there were irregularities in the inflated prices, advertising processes, and the fact that it was not part of the municipality’s original budget.
Exorbitant recurring amounts
The monthly amounts paid for the equipment are completely outlandish if City Press’s images from inside the prefab call centre are legitimate.
For example, the Lenovo desktops appear to be decade-old ThinkCentre all-in-one models.
Based on the design and aspect ratio, at least one of the machines was the Lenovo ThinkCentre M71z — released in 2012.
This model is no longer on sale and can only be bought secondhand once-off for no more than R5,000. The municipality is paying about R32,372 for these machines.
While the price would be a good deal compared to the R1 million another North West district municipality paid for a laptop, it is important to note that the equipment costs are being paid on a recurring monthly basis.
The wired mice and keyboards in the photos did not seem to be from any major recognisable brand, either.
With the monthly fee of R469 per mouse, the municipality could have paid a once-off R429 for a high-performance wired Logitech G102 gaming mouse.
A Microsoft or Logitech wireless mouse would also have cost a more modest R300.
The headset in one image appears to be the Logitech H390, which sells for R599 on First Shop.
The municipality is paying R4,619 for each of these headsets every month, nearly eight times the once-off price.
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