Businesspeople affected by the rehabilitation of the approximately 600 metres of road in Main Street, Eltivillas, say that the snail's space at which the contractor is working is costing them a lot of business.
Concerns were raised during a meeting between the businesspeople, the engineer of the project, the contractor and Makhado Municipality (who could not attend the meeting) at Makhado FM's premises on Tuesday, 22 February. The aim of the meeting was to discuss progress and plans on the rehabilitation of the road at the Commissioner- and Main Street intersection.
Ahmed Asvat, owner of AA Furnishers, said he had been dragged to the CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration) in December 2021 after he had failed to pay his employees bonuses. "I could not pay my employees because I lost 60% of my turnover due to the rehabilitation of this road. My customers did not have access to the shop. I ended up having to come up with some means to pay part of their bonuses."
The general suggestion was that the road leading to Eltivillas should not be closed completely and that the contractor should open up a part of the road to still allow business to continue. However, according to the engineer, Innocent Sibanda, this would only add to costs. Sibanda also indicated that they were running out of time.
The project was initially scheduled to be completed by April this year, but it was extended to 30 June 2022.
"This whole project is being run in bad faith. When the engineer says they are afraid of attracting extra costs, I wonder whether they have also considered how much we as businesspeople have already lost," said Masana Maluleke, a pharmacist.
As more questions poured in from the business community, what became clear was that the municipality's input was needed as well. The meeting was postponed to Thursday, 24 February (today), to allow the municipality to avail itself.