Scopa slates Buffalo City for wasting hundreds of millions of rands on infrastructure projects

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has severely criticised the senior management of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCM) for the poor costing and quality of all of its capital projects. In a two-day oversight visit, the watchdog went to the Mdantsane swimming pool, Zwelitsha wastewater treatment works in Qonce and Water World Fun Park project in East London.

The visit follows the auditor general, Tsakani Maluleka’s 2023/2024 annual report, that highlights severe irregular expenditure within the municipality of R10-billion. Elitsha recently reported that the Buffalo City Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) criticised the metro’s leadership for its failure to implement corrective measures in addressing financial mismanagement.

Scopa chairperson, Songezo Zibi said they found that all three projects suffered from similar problems: “In all three projects we found that there had been poor design, poor planning, poor contract management, appointing the wrong engineering consultants onsite to manage, and lack of accountability.”

Mdantsane ‘money pool’

During the meeting between the metro’s senior management and Scopa on Friday, BCM representatives contradicted themselves in speaking about the investigation they conducted into the dismal failure of the Mdantsane swimming pool, referred to as ‘money pool’ by opposition councillors. They said that they gave a copy of the forensic report to the Hawks, and had not given it to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to ‘avoid a parallel process’. Later in the day, however, they said both the Hawks and SIU do not have the report because it had not been tabled before the council for deliberation.

“The Special Investigation Unit deals with civil matters and possible recovery of assets, while the Hawks deals with criminal; we want to understand why you refused to hand the report to the SUI for its mandate?” asked Zibi. Municipal chief whip, Nozandile Mhlola told Scopa that like the Hawks, the SIU would have to obtain it through a court order.

After a very long back and forth discussion and warnings by Scopa’s chairperson to be truthful to parliament, the municipality revealed that neither the Hawks nor SUI had the report as it had not been tabled before council. The metro had been withholding the report for months, Mhlola said, due to the sensitive information it contains. Scopa member and EFF MP, Veronica Mente described the refusal to handover the report as corruption. She said councillors at BCM do not understand law.

Scopa says that delays with cost overruns appear to be the norm rather than the exception in Buffalo City, totaling wastage of hundreds of millions of rands.

So far, the municipality has spent more than R30-million on the Mdantsane pool without tangible results, according to Mente. She described the pool as non-existent: “It is non-existent because it has been confirmed that the entire project must be started afresh, because it was not done according to plan.” She said construction had proceeded without considering the environment, that the tiles that are fitted are not safe, and that there is a lack of drainage. The entire project has to be re-planned, reassessed and a new tender issued, said Mente.

Zwelitsha wastewater treatment plant

Though the municipality has fifteen wastewater treatment works, the auditor general (AG) found that only three were functional with the rest not having the necessary licences to operate. The AG red-flagged material irregularities in the metro’s water and sanitation infrastructure projects, finding design flaws that cause major blockages and sewage spills that compromise water quality in rivers and at beaches.

So far the metro has spent about R500-million in upgrading the Zwelitsha works to a regional wastewater treatment facility, to allow for the decommissioning of Schornville wastewater treatment works, and Bhisho and Breidbach Ponds.

The completion of the upgrades to the Zwelitsha works will allow the municipality to develop Qonce and surrounding areas that are currently under a development moratorium due to inadequate bulk sewerage treatment infrastructure.

Member of Scopa and MP from the MK Party, Emerald Madlala said the lack of accountability was a big issue as highlighted by the AG in the report. “A tender was awarded to a bidder for the project; the second bidder took the metro to court to say they were under-scored, and the court agreed… The issue is what have you done to those who were sitting in the adjudication committee and under-scored the bidder? This is the issue around not having consequence management because everyone tests the system,” said Madlala.

The municipality spent more than R30-million on the Mdantsane swimming pool with the only result an unusable pool, according to Scopa.

Water World project

The project aimed at enhancing tourism by creating an unique water park for visitors has been stalled. The budget for completion of the project was set in 2021 at R103.1-million. However, when it was abandoned due to disputes in 2023, R125-million had been spent with little to show for it.

In her report Maluleka found that there was no consideration of remedial work before the project was abandoned. “No action plan was submitted for remedial works before the contractor abandoned the site on 3 April 2023 and was officially terminated on 20 April 2023. Defects were not remedied and no maintenance occurred, leaving overgrown vegetation prone to reptile habitation. Completion and remedial costs are estimated at R42.2-million,” the report reads.

“BCM is overspending on targets but under achieving, what we need to deal with is the value for money, the cost-efficient issue – when funds are released service must be delivered. When you are spending more on your targets but you are not delivering at least up to the percentage you have set, then you have high appetite for spending but not properly,” said MKP’s Madlala.