Mr Simon Peterson
Regional Manager: Southern Region
South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited
PO Box 415
Pretoria
0001
Dear Mr Peterson
Mtentu Bridge project: community complaints
1. My recent telephone conversation with you has reference. Thank you for agreeing to meet with Nkosi Jama Kanyayo, and the Kwakanyayo community.
2. Just to recap, I was recently invited by the chief and the community of Kwakanyayo, near Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape, to listen to their complaints and frustrations around the Mtentu Bridge project.
3. The main frustration is the community’s belief that the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) has reneged on many of its initial undertakings with them.
4. The 195 persons who were to be employed by the project had lost their gainful employment and are now jobless.
5. People who were removed from their homes are in some cases still homeless, and where homes were erected, they have not been provided with electricity.
6. The community indicated that the local quarry had been tested, but that they were never briefed on the outcome of these tests.
7. There was an undertaking to train local business people, and this did not materialise; and they complained that small local concerns are not benefitting as promised.
8. The new area manager is seemingly confusing the community and refuses to recognise the agreements that were initially reached between SANRAL and the community. It seems that this person is running a parallel process to that of the Project Liaison Committee, which further muddies the water.
9. The community is calling for the resumption of the Mtentu Bridge project as soon as possible and also that SANRAL honours its initial undertakings.
10. I would like to request that your office attends to this community’s concerns and should there have been failures on either party’s side that they be rectified as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP
President of the United Democratic Movement
Copied: Nkosi Jama Kanyayo and the community of Kwakanyayo
Mtentu Bridge Project Manager; Mr Craig McLachlan
