A group of angry Gugulethu residents have halted a road rehabilitation project indefinitely because they claim that proper employment and selection processes had not been followed.
One of the key aims of the project was to revamp pavements and various streets in areas such as 145, 146, 144, and 117 and in other parts of the area. The project was meant to begin last year already but due to various reasons it was delayed and only started last week Monday.
But just a week since its commencement, residents have already cited their unhappiness. Residents argue that when such projects get under way people who live in that particular area should be the ones employed.
They said those who were selected should be screened to ensure that they reside in that particularly area before they could commence with work. However, they claimed in this project all of these steps had been ignored purposely.
Committee member, Nomakhuzelo Zibaya, said the community leaders had held various meeting with the ward councillor and other stakeholders, detailing plans of the project.
Ms Zibaya said in the last meeting they had they were going to discuss the employment selection and procedures so that the project could begin. However, she said they were shocked when they discovered that the project had already started and that the majority of the people employed did not come from their area.
She said 25 people were meant to be employed and currently 18 have been employed. But she said surprisingly only two people out of that 18 were from the community.
Ms Zibaya said the residents immediately raised their concern with the leadership and stakeholders involved but their grievance had fallen on deaf ears. She said these programmes provide an opportunity for residents to at least have employment, even if it’s for a short period.
She said in other communities proper steps had been taken and they wanted the same approach to be applied in their area.
She said some people from their community who had been employed in projects in other communities were fired because they did not reside in that area. “We want to see people from our area working on this project. In other areas people were working on project sand there were no outsiders.
“We are fighting a genuine fight. We won’t allow the project to start again if this is not resolved. Such projects are meant to benefit different communities and if it is not benefiting us what is the point of having it?”
Mayoral committee member for transport,Felicity Purchase, said the contractor informed them that workers were prevented from working on Monday.
Ms Purchase said all City of Cape Town contracts stipulate that contractors should provide local residents with temporary work opportunities and on-the-job training. And these processes are regulated by several City policies, as well as national legislation, to ensure that goods and services are acquired through a competitive and transparent process.
But she said community leaders or politicians are not allowed to interfere with this process. “That said, the contractor complied with all City and contract requirements when employing local labour – all 18 labourers working on this project were sourced from the City’s job seekers database and are from the affected ward. The broader leadership of the ward was consulted and agreed to this method. The City has a court interdict in place to ensure that the contractor is able to work without any interference. However, this has been disregarded,” she said.
Ms Purchase said for a while now City infrastructure projects intended to uplift communities in need have suffered unwarranted delays by groups demanding favours and donations from the contractors. Sadly, she said, most of the perpetrators are from the communities they are trying to uplift.
Vukani tried to get comment from ward councillor Sharon Manata but was unable to reach her by the time this edition went to print.