Public works strikes deal with business forum to get Menzi High project back on track

The KwaZulu-Natal department of public works has set a new deadline for the completion of an upgrade to a Durban high school, which had faced several disruptions by alleged construction mafia groups, after striking a deal with a business forum.

The R37.8m upgrade to Menzi High School in Umlazi started in June 2022 and was to be completed in December. However, the project had to be stopped six times, mainly due to disruptions by armed gangs who demanded 30% of the costs. Those stoppages resulted in costs for the project escalating. Work had to stop again as the public works department sought extra funding, which it eventually received from the education department.

“These types of problems just built on top of one another,” said public works MEC Martin Meyer, who was joined by a delegation from the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and other stakeholders to assess the progress of the project at the school on Wednesday.

Menzi High is famous for its academic excellence, particularly its grade 12 results. The school attained a 100% pass rate for 11 consecutive years until last year when one pupil failed, though they still managed to attain more than 500 distinctions. It currently has more than 1,200 pupils using about 20 classrooms.

The upgrade to the school comprises building 13 new classrooms, a multipurpose classroom, a media centre and science laboratory. It also includes the refurbishment of the existing administration block which will result in the building of a kitchen, an assembly area, amphitheatre, entrance square and external works.

Meyer said they reached a working agreement with the Black Business Forum (BBF) and work is ongoing. The new completion date is April 2025.

Simphiwe Blose, regional director for public works in eThekwini, said it was not an easy exercise to engage with the BBF.

“We had to sit with them during several meetings and tried to persuade them so we could come to an amicable solution,” he said. “We managed to win some battles and lose some, because we had to keep in mind the beneficiary of this project is the learners and staff of Menzi, so we had to do our best to navigate through this situation.”

Blose said about R15.5m has been spent on the project so far, which is now 56% complete.

BBF secretary-general Wonder Jaca denied they had bulldozed their way to an agreement with the department.

“We don’t do that, we are not criminals. We want participation into the mainstream economy and projects, in a right way. We have always been on the right side of the law, or at least we have tried — [but] there has mainly been rejection by government,” he said.

He said the main reason for hostile stoppages is because the government refuses to recognise and regulate the sector.

“Now any criminal can call themselves business forums and halt projects. Maybe these six stoppages were not from [actual] business forums... [The government needs to] find a way to regulate business forums so that when people call themselves one then there is at least a criteria to determine if it is indeed a business forum.”

Jaca added there were also stoppages at the beginning of the Sanral project along the N3 freeway but everything has been smooth since they started working with them.

“We are the people making that freeway run smoothly because we had a model. Sanral mastered the art of engaging stakeholders, which I think is the same art that MEC Meyer is applying. If the whole of government can also adopt that model, then there would be no stoppages.”

Meyer reiterated they were not bulldozed into an agreement with the BBF, saying they invited anyone who wanted peaceful engagements. He agreed that the regulation of business forums needed to be addressed.

“When you don’t have regulations, you have a wild west situation where everybody does whatever they want, [but] when you have them then everybody knows where they stand with each other and law and justice prevails, which is what everybody wants,” he said.

Blose said the subcontractors will end up getting more than 30% share of the work on this project because of the amount allocated to them.

NCOP member and former eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the department should take lessons from its experience in this project. It was important to be proactive in engaging with communities and explain how this 30% would be accessed by local businesses before projects start.

He suggested people who cause similar disruptions in future be identified and sued for the money lost during unnecessary stoppages.

“We must make an example so that this thing does not repeat itself,” Kaunda said. 

TimesLIVE.