Pavements in Bloemendal, the construction of a new road in Missionvale, water treatment upgrades for Churchill and KwaNobuhle as well as the installation of water meters.
These are among the infrastructure and engineering projects that may have to be placed on the back burner for the municipality to meet the demands of 600 small business owners for “work packages” before the festive season.
While the municipality was tight-lipped about the kind of work it would be giving the 600 SMMEs, it is understood that it would be largely drain cleaning projects.
The metro has already cleaned stormwater drains around the city and has spent 70% of its budget for it in this financial year.
However, city officials say they have been pressured by the political leadership at City Hall to find money in their budgets to accommodate the small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), which have been hounding the municipality for a bigger cut in tenders.
According to municipal insiders, a few of the roads and engineering staff have been threatened with their jobs if they do not do as they are told.
E-mails between directors Barry Martin, Luthando Mabhoza, Yussuf Gaffore, mayor Mongameli Bobani, infrastructure and engineering boss Walter Shaidi and acting city manager Noxolo Nqwazi indicate that the instruction for them to rework their budgets and find money for the SMMEs was made at a meeting with the mayor on Monday.
An insider in the roads, infrastructure and engineering department said: “We were just instructed.
“It is now up to the politicians to decide if we stop these [ongoing] projects to give projects to these SMMEs.
“If they feel that that’s something they want, they can go ahead.
“Right now, I am keeping a low profile because we are working under difficult conditions,” the official said.
“It has become very clear that they [politicians] are after officials now, if you don’t cooperate they will remove you.
“At the moment, it is very difficult and we hope things get better.”
The insider said Bobani had dared them at the meeting to run to the media because he did not care. “He told us to ‘run to The Herald’ if we want to, saying he does not care and will do what he wants to do.”
Another insider said they were forced to take money from the budget for temporary jobs through the Expanded Public Works Programme – about R8m – to create work for the SMMEs, with no control over how to select which small businesses would benefit.
The additional R10m will be taken largely from the Urban Settlement Development Grant – money given to the city by the National Treasury for the installation of infrastructure services.
In e-mail exchanges seen by The Herald, there are proposals to cut R3.9m which would have been used for the construction of a road in Bloemendal and a bridge in Joe Slovo.
The R8m for the EPWP means the city will not be able to create temporary jobs in this financial year.
The rest of the money will be taken from the budgets meant for water and sanitation projects.
In the e-mails, Martin warned that cutting the budget could result in slow implementation of the projects.
Some of the projects that may be affected include the augmentation of the Walmer Heights and Mount Pleasant sewer lines as well as the KwaNobuhle waste water treatment works upgrade, and upgrades to the Elandsjagt wastewater treatment works.
Martin wrote: “The savings on the respective projects will slow down the implementation in certain areas.
“Apart from the office accommodation, the funding source of the budget cuts is from the Urban Settlements Development Grant.”
Meanwhile, roads director Gaffore wrote that the budget cut could drastically affect the city’s EPWP job-creation targets.
“The funding for this type of work is only on our contractual employment vote which was to fund the EPWP programme.
“Our specialised drain cleaning [budget] is 70% spent and is used for jetting pipes.
“The R8m as per your instruction would then be funded from [a separate budget vote],” he wrote.
“This, therefore, means that we will not meet our EPWP targets unless additional funding is provided in the adjustments budget.”
On Wednesday, mayoral committee member for infrastructure and engineering Andile Lungisa denied that they had instructed staff to create work for the SMMEs, saying the Monday meeting was an ordinary meeting to evaluate work done by officials.
“There are no instructions being given to officials.
“What is happening is that day-to-day activities of our departments are discussed, we did not give any instructions.
Lungisa said the “day-to-day activities” included discussions around SMMEs.
“On a daily basis, we meet with the officials and assess their performance in line with their key performance indicators,” he said.
“Work packages are part of the budget.
“They are available, they are there – there is no need to cut any budgets,” he claimed.
“And it is known that all projects worth more than R10m, 30% of the project must be given to SMMEs.
“Our people are here, they must be given work, whether it is SMMEs or black-owned, they must be given work.”
Black business caucus co-ordinator Lithemba Singaphi, who said he represented about 2,800 small business owners, said the city had, after a late night meeting last week, decided that they would find the money within the prescripts of the law.
“We had our demands and they were very clear – we said the municipality had a financial year that was wrapped up under the DA and its coalition partners.
“Most of the departments did not meet the policy document that you have that speaks about allocating 30% of projects to SMMEs,” he said.
“It is not our fault if officials are not held accountable.
“They must correct this regardless of whether or not they were in office.”
Singaphi said they were told that the city would consult its legal department on how it could find the money within the prescripts of the law.
“We told the mayor that we are giving him until the second week of January to sort this out for the long-term, but in the meantime he must make sure that people have a different Christmas.
“It is not their [SMMEs’] fault that they did not work as a result of officials failing to apply the policy,” Singaphi said.
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said empowering the SMMEs was one of the municipality’s priorities.
“The municipality has a number of times held meetings with SMMEs to find ways on how this can be realised on a short- to medium-term basis, while the municipality continues to put long-term plans in place,” he said.
“These are ongoing interactions between them, municipal management and the mayoral committee.
“Some of these engagements have been done in open sessions while some were held in closed sessions.
“It must be stated categorically that any agreements or arrangements that will be done, they will be done within the confines of the law.”
Mniki said when the time was right officials would brief the media on what work the small businesses would be doing and the costs involved.
Asked if any officials had been threatened with suspension, Mniki said: “From time to time, official meetings get heated due to maybe differences of opinion or approach.
“It would be taking it a bit too far to say municipal officials have been threatened with suspension.”