The Northern Cape African National Congress has expressed great concern about the slow pace at the roads construction project in the Joe Morolong area. In its meeting held recently at the John Taolo Gaetsewe district municipality both the regional and provincial structures felt the sagacious roads in question are not getting due attention as initially agreed by parties involved in the construction of the Dithakong’s MR950 and Laxey’s MR947 roads that led to the closure of schools with extensive damages between 2012 and 2014 respectively.
This comes after the Road Forum had raised eyebrows on the extent of commitment and fulfilment reached during the explosive meetings that resulted in the agreement between the department of Roads and Public Works and Sishen Iron Ore Company-community development trust (SIOC-cdt) in the presence of the public protector’s office. The ruling party with the presence of all mayors in the region summoned the department officials to come and give reasons why the contentious roads are far from being completed and what causes intermittent stoppages.
The completion of the saga-stricken roads will solve a number of challenges faced by the community. A good example already in the hand is the attraction of learner transport because currently transporters have to think twice before they can commit themselves to bid in the transportation of learners in the villages punctuated by these gravel roads because the state of the roads is inimical to their vehicles.
In the deal agreed between the two funders of the roads SIOC-cdt is alleged to have committed 57 kilometres while the department had to take the lion’s share of the remainder, 73 kilometres. The mountain questions that arise are whether or not SIOC-cdt released the funds that it promised to kick-start the construction project as agreed. If that was the case how much was pumped by SIOC-cdt towards the project and how many kilometres did the amount cover?
Similarly, how much has the responsible department spent towards its share of the project to today ? Reliably SIOC-cdt had committed about R91-million in the project. At this stage, it is very important that the department must reveal its financial figures spent on these roads as an act of reciprocity as did SIOC-cdt. This is in trying to allay suspicion of leaning on SIOC-cdt’s contribution only while the department is merely barking at its shadow or having put droplets on the colossal project.
If both parties fulfilled their oaths and released proportionate funds in the project while the roads are still incomplete, let the stakeholders involved meet again and find the way forward. While not necessarily vindicating SIOC-cdt, the community trust came in as sympathiser with government, the department of public works must not hide behind its fingers, the destructive community protests were aimed at government.
