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About R185 million – earmarked for a drought relief project in KwaZulu-Natal – cannot be accounted for.
This is according to Zululand District Municipality mayor Thulasizwe Buthelezi, who has laid a complaint with the Public Protector’s Office.
In a letter to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Tuesday, Buthelezi claimed that the national water and sanitation department appointed Mhlathuze Water to complete water supply projects to Abaqulusi and Nongoma Local Municipalities in the 2015-2016 financial year.
According to Buthelezi, these projects were undertaken under ministerial directions issued to Mhlathuze Water, a public entity owned by the department of water and sanitation that operates in northern KwaZulu-Natal to address water supply challenges within the Zululand District Municipality.
Buthelezi says an amount of R185 million was allocated by the national department to Mhlathuze Water according to the budget allocation below:
• Abaqulusi wards 5, 6, 7 and 22: R 40 437 851
• Nongoma wards 5, 10 and 11: R72 051 764
• Nomgoma wards 14 and 17: R 63 260 384
• Implementing agent fees: R 9 250 000
• Total: R185 million
As of January, the mayor claims, Mhlathuze Water already used R115 million of the amount and requested an additional R70 million from national Treasury with no real tangible infrastructure to show for it.
“The municipality has no evidence to show that R185 million worth of water infrastructure has been rolled out by Mhlathuze Water. Instead, the communities identified in the above wards still have no access to water,” said Buthelezi.
Mhlathuze corporate communications manager, Siyabonga Maphumulo, said the company “had noted with dismay the allegations made by the Inkatha Freedom Party that millions of rands earmarked for a drought relief project in the Zululand District Municipality had disappeared without a trace”.
Maphumulo said the allegations by the party, through its mayor, were “laughable”.
He said the “truth of the matter was that, for the first time ever, more than 6000 homes now have access to clean running water in Nongoma and Abaqulusi” thanks to the work by Mhlathuze Water.
According to Maphumulo, the mayor was faking “blindness to the positive impacts that the water infrastructure project has brought to the Zululand district”.
Maphumulo said residents had expressed gratitude for the project because it had “rescued them from the indignity of drawing water from rivers frequented by livestock”.
Maphumulo also claimed that Buthelezi had “spurned an invitation by Mhlathuze Water chief executive Mthokozisi Duze to be a part of an inspection visit of the water projects recently, in party to these allegations that there is no discernible progress in that district”.
“Mhlathuze Water remains neither concerned nor deterred by the attempts to discredit a project that has altered for the better the livelihoods of entire villages in one of the most remote parts of KwaZulu-Natal,” said Maphumulo.
“Looking ahead, Mhlathuze Water will continue to deliver water to the people of Nongoma and Abaqulusi, like it has already done in certain areas under these municipalities.”
