Note to editors: Please find attached English soundbite by Nico De Jager MPL.
The Gauteng Provincial Government’s (GPG) failure to blacklist companies that have repeatedly failed to deliver infrastructure projects in accordance with their contractual obligations negatively affects the building of new infrastructure and its completion within time and budget. Every delayed or defective project directly impacts residents. It means children may be forced to learn in unsafe conditions, patients may be denied access to proper healthcare facilities, and communities may remain without functioning public infrastructure.
This was revealed in a written reply to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) questions to the MEC for Infrastructure Development, Jacob Mamabolo. The department admits that it does not have a list of companies that have been blacklisted. Instead, it has merely compiled a list of service providers recommended for restriction and is still awaiting action from the Director-General of Public Works and Infrastructure.
This is an unacceptable failure of oversight, consequence management and political leadership. Contractors who deliver late, abandon projects, or produce shoddy workmanship should not be allowed to continue accessing lucrative government tenders while communities wait for schools, clinics, and other essential infrastructure.
The department further admits that it cannot even tell us how much public money has been lost, or whether any money has been recovered. Mamabolo’s department also cannot account for how much has been spent appointing replacement contractors. These answers demonstrate a disturbing lack of financial control and accountability. When failed contracts are terminated, taxpayers are often forced to pay again for work that should already have been completed.
Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government’s inability to act decisively against repeat offenders creates the perception that politically connected contractors are being protected from the consequences of failure. Whether through incompetence or deliberate inaction, the result is the same: public funds are wasted, services are not delivered and the Gauteng public suffers.
The DA calls on MEC Mamabolo to immediately publish the list of contractors recommended for restriction, disclose the value of affected contracts, provide a full account of losses and recoveries, and explain why these companies remain eligible to do business with government.
Residents deserve competent infrastructure delivery, not excuses, secrecy and a revolving door for failed contractors.