‘There will be no fixing of potholes’: Irate contractors down tools over non-payment by municipality

There will be no fixing of potholes, clearing of stormwater drains and cleaning of pavements until the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality pays small businesses the money they are owed for services rendered.

This is the vow from angry SMME owners who had a meeting with city bosses on Thursday, complaining about not being paid for more than 90 days.

The irate SMME owners protested outside the Gqeberha City Hall, demanding to be paid the R19.2m they say is owed to them.

A small group of people wearing reflector jackets gathered in Vuyisile Mini Square while protest leaders held talks with city bosses behind closed doors.

Speaking on behalf of the SMMEs, Gravity Projects and Services owner Patrick Dramwell said they had met budget and treasury political boss Malcom Figg.

Dramwell said the city had not paid contractors since November last year. He said they had been patient long enough.

“When we wanted our money, we were told there was an issue with our contractors’ price adjustment (CPA), but they could not tell us what the issue was,” Dramwell said.

“If it’s too high, they must give us facts as to why they say it’s high. If their reasons are valid by the correct standard, then we do not have a problem reducing the price percentage. This can be sorted in a single day and payment can be made.”

The failure to pay small businesses was severely affecting them, he said, adding that it flew in the face of the government saying SMMEs were the heartbeat of the economy.

“Combined, we have more than 700 households we have to feed. We cannot pay our employees because we do not have money. If we are not paid by March 29, we will be forced to close our businesses.

“I owe [suppliers] more than R500,000 because before we do a job, we need to spend money,” Dramwell said, adding it had taken him five years to build his company.

He said they would not lift a finger until they were paid. “We will not respond to any depot or project managers’ calls. We will down our tools until we are paid. We will not render services relating to fixing potholes, fixing pavements, drain cleaning, construction of speed humps and fixing stormwater drains.”

Figg said the municipality would not just make the payments without satisfying itself that companies had done the work and had been properly appointed. This, he said, was to ensure the city did not incur any fruitless and irregular expenditure.

“The real issue in some of these payments is that in the documents attached to the payment pack, there are no letters of appointment of service providers.

“It is one simple document that must be available. There are different calculated percentages relating to CPA. The CPA varies, with huge percentages such as 14% to 22%. It is not clear how it was calculated and that evidence is needed.”

Figg said once the discrepancies had been addressed, payments would be processed - but he did not say when that would be.

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