Contractors who abandon or deliver substandard work will be blacklisted, warns KZN Public Works MEC
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Public Works and Infrastructure, Martin Meyer, has announced that the provincial government will begin blacklisting contractors
Image: DOCTOR NGCOBO / Independent Newspapers
Contractors who either abandon state projects or deliver substandard work will be blacklisted.
This, according to KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Public Works and Infrastructure, Martin Meyer, will send a clear message that incompetence and negligence will no longer be tolerated on public contracts.
Meyer said the province has long struggled with delays and inefficiencies caused by unreliable contractors' issues that have severely affected service delivery and undermined public infrastructure development.
Meyer revealed that when he took office earlier this year, almost all projects under the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure were already behind schedule.
"This is a very sad thing that I inherited last year when I took office and when the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) [was formed], that almost all the projects of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure were running behind schedule," Meyer said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.
The MEC added that while some delays were the result of intimidation by the so-called construction mafia, a significant number were due to poor contractor performance and financial mismanagement.
"Some of them were because of the construction mafia but quite a few of them were just underperforming contractors and the sad fact is that at every site that I visit, when I get a report, one section is always dedicated to how we had changed contractors because the previous contractor was giving us shoddy work or was unable to complete the work due to finances."
Meyer argued that the law does allow for blacklisting, and stressed that if a contractor was providing substandard work, they would be added to the blacklist. He added that contractors would be given the opportunity to appeal the decision.
"If a contractor is providing shoddy work we will then put them on the blacklist and like anything else we believe in natural justice and people can appeal that and bring proof that they have improved the situation and they are able to do work," he concluded.
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