SIKHUPHE HOUSES: E3.8M DOWN THE DRAIN

MBABANE – The Ministry of Public Works and Transport is once again guilty of allowing taxpayers’ money to go down the drain.

The latest report from the ministry is admitting that the 15 temporary houses built in 2014 at Sikhuphe are not suitable for human habitation.
It remains a mystery as to who sanctioned the importation of building material from Egypt to construct 15 temporary houses which have remained white elephants.

The temporary houses were built in 2014 using a building technology imported from Egypt called glass fibre re-enforced concrete (GRC) technology near the King Mswati III International Airport.

  
According to the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe, the entire project cost around E3.8 million.
He said the total amount of money involved was E3 828 042 which included infrastructure works, water, electricity and sewer reticulation.
Motion

The minister, in his report, was responding to a motion which had been moved by Dvokodvweni Constituency MP Mduduzi Magagula, who wanted a detailed report on the status of the institutional houses which were allegedly built at the instance of the Eswatini Civil Aviation Authority (ESWACAA), but were condemned on completion.

The MP, who was supported by Mangcongco MP Oneboy Zikalala, had further asked the minister to state how much had been spent, why they were condemned and what would happen to the buildings moving forward. The minister said after the building material had been imported, it transpired that it was permeable thus making rain water seep through the walls.

He said this therefore made the structures unfit for use considering the amount of rain experienced during the rainy season in the Sikhuphe area.
“Considering the structural defects identified in the buildings, the technology may not be suitable for the use in the region due to the climatic conditions that are different from Egypt where the technology is imported from,” reads the report which was tabled in the House of Assembly on Monday.

The minister said the seepage threatened the integrity of the electrical system and had resulted in the development of mould on the walls.
He said an assessment by a structural engineer was undertaken to assess the state of the houses and the report stated that the temporary housing units were not suitable for human habitation.

Request

The minister further reported that the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) had, however, submitted a request to utilise the housing units and were willing to undertake some rehabilitation works in order to use them to meet their accommodation needs.
“They motivated that they can use them since they are better than their existing accommodation facilities,” said the minister.

Efforts to get comment from the EUDF were not successful yesterday. However, in its second quarter budget performance report for the financial year 2019/2020, the Ministry of National Defence and Security admitted that the state of accommodation at their patrolling bases was continuing to negatively affect their operations since it could not withstand prevailing weather conditions, especially in winter.

In response the acting Minister Thuli Dladla had stated that in the past they used to be allocated a capital budget of E4 million for the construction of permanent structures at forward bases.
However, she said due to financial challenges, the project was suspended.  

Newly-constructed

Meanwhile, Chief Ndlaluhlaza said presently there were 40 units of newly-constructed institutional houses built by the Eswatini Housing Board under the Eswatini Institutional Housing project.
“Those permanent housing units are fully occupied by operational staff at the KMIII International Airport and there have been no complaints concerning their condition and therefore habitable,” he said.

He added that the project was expected to deliver 250 more housing units at the airport in subsequent phases.   
In 2015, ESWACAA, which is a parastatal under the ministry, enlisted a company to construct 15 two-bedroom institutional houses around Sikhuphe area on land that is a stone’s throw from the KMIII Airport. The company used technology which had never been used in the country’s conventional construction industry history after getting the tender for the project.

The ministry as if to dig deeper into the taxpayers’ coffers, later erected mobile houses, which after a visit by this publication were found to be occupied by people believed to work at the airport because they could not occupy the now vacant houses. 
Houses
The mobile houses are situated next to the unoccupied ones which are fenced in with the gate padlocked.
The company was engaged at the time when Senate President Lindiwe Dlamini was the Minister of Public Works and Transport
The move to enlist the company, then, was also confirmed by Minister of Public Works and Transport Lindiwe Dlamini in Senate in 2015 as she said the company was ready to operate in the country and had been engaged to construct the houses at Sikhuphe.
Meanwhile, it is not the first time that the ministry has been found in the wrong for not completing projects or making sure service providers or contractors finish the work.
The recent hot potato remains the issue of the Nhlangano/Sicunusa Road where about E600 million of taxpayers money went down the drain because of the incomplete road.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been at pains trying to investigate the issue with the view of getting those responsible to be accountable. 

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