The Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested the Office of the Auditor General (AG) to investigate the incomplete Philandersbron bridge project, for which the Northern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works has already spent R27 million out of an allocated budget of R28 million.
Since the Philandersbron bridge maintenance and repair project commenced in 2023, three contractors started and halted works on the bridge within the same year.
The unfinished bridge, while open to motorists, presents a safety risk as it has no railings. Heavy rains experienced earlier this year, aggravated safety concerns for farmers of Noenieput and children, who are transported over the bridge on a daily basis. The unfinished bridge has also become a hang-out for young people, and the body of a young woman, who was raped and murdered, was also found at the construction site.
The DA is concerned that the necessary repair work will never materialise with just R1 million left to complete the project, to the detriment of the local community and the local economy.
With nearly half the year already gone, the DA is also questioning whether completion of the project will resume in the 2025/2026 financial year, as previously committed to by the department.
While R48 million was earmarked for bridge maintenance in the 2023/2024 financial year, the department only achieved 67% of its transport infrastructure indicators for the year. It also incurred over R19 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure for overpayments made on rehabilitation contracts.
The DA will ask the AG to investigate the expenditure and value-for-money received on the Philandersbron bridge project. The department must come clean on how and why it appointed three different contractors, amidst a series of construction delays, while still making payment of R27 million for incomplete work. The department must also report on its potential bypassing of the Provincial Treasury moratorium issued on 31 August 2023, instructing departments to halt projects that had not commenced.
Public funds must be spent to improve the lives of communities and grow the local economy. The department must be held accountable for entrenching government inefficiencies through questionable procurement and endangering the lives of motorists.