Kokosi residents outraged as road project is left incomplete by contractor

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15-04-2025
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The Citizen Online
Source

The contractor left large parts of the sidewalk in a worse state than it was before.

Residents of Kokosi complain that the Merafong City Local Municipality allowed a contractor to get away with blundering work before completing a project.

In 2019, the municipality awarded an alleged R7m to a contractor from the Northwest to tar and upgrade Kwena Street. Two years later, the contractor left before the project was complete.

According to community members, only some parts of the street have been tarred. At houses such as no. 3485, the sidewalk that was left was scraped at such an angle that vehicles cannot drive into the yards.

In other areas, gaping holes were left where the stormwater drains were supposed to be. Residents feel this poses a danger to pedestrians, especially children.

“We heard that the contract cost R7m. Did the municipality pay all of this to the contractor? Why did it cost so much to work on the small street? The community is also afraid that the municipality will just pay another contractor the same amount, or more, to come and fix the work that is left and call it ‘Phase 2’ of the project,” lamented a community leader, David Ndubatha.

“We tried to find out why the municipality is not finishing this road, but they said there are no funds left. Will we have to wait another four years for them to complete this work?” said another worried resident, Lesole Phulo.

The Herald took the issue to the municipality on Monday, but their marketing and communication manager, Temba Fezani, did not respond.