Pretoria – Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala, has welcomed the decision by the Gauteng High Court to dismiss the appeal brought by Caledon River Properties Pty, Ltd and Profteam cc.
The companies failed to overturn an order made by the Special Tribunal in March 2022 that stripped them of the multimillion-rand profits they made from constructing the Beitbridge border fence between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The fence was widely criticised as ineffective and was regarded as overpriced.
Last month, Herman Mashaba the leader of ActionSA visited Beitbridge and posted pictures on social media of the appalling state of the fence.
“The Minister believes this is a special Christmas present to the South African Tax Payers and will send a strong message to those developers who are fleecing government coffers through shoddy workmanship,” said the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure in a statement Thursday.
The Special Tribunal ruled that the service providers had to pay back the over R40m profit they unlawfully made in the construction of the Beitbridge border fence in March 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 national shutdown.
Even though the contractors had agreed to the declaration of invalidity of their contracts due to irregularities, they appealed the order depriving them of the profits.
However, their appeal has been dismissed by the high court with costs.
Minister Zikalala said the judgment of the high court vindicates his department’s determination to recoup all the monies unlawfully paid to contractors.
He said the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure was on an irreversible warpath to correct all the ills that bedevil the construction industry and to put it as a flywheel to job creation and economic growth.
“All contracts that have a whiff of corruption will be subjected to scrutiny,” said Minister Zikalala.
“If any is found to have been illegally awarded, it will be cancelled and consequence management will be applied to all involved including service providers.
“We have conducted a number of road shows in the country, meeting contractors and other stakeholders in our industry this year.
“The important message that we have been preaching in these engagements has been, ‘engage government honestly in this industry’.
“We want contractors not to see government as an entity to be fleeced off.
“We shall go after anyone who defrauds the state… be it in price inflation, overcharging, shoddy work, or inflated invoices.”
Minister Zikalala said the department was restricting companies that have short-changed the government.
The minister said all the might of the state will continue to be wielded in correcting the mistakes that have been made in the past.
He said contractors will have to up their game and be willing to play by the rules to grow the construction industry.
“Minister Zikalala has thanked the Special Investigating Unit for the work it has done and for building a water-tight case that has led to these positive results,” the statement said.
