Villagers up in arms over blocked bridges

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Wednesday November 25, 2009 00:00

The councillor for Senyawe-Butale who reported the matter to Mmegi the previous week, said yesterday that the company at the weekend heaped more sands on the bridges to ensure no one passed through.

'They came and put more sand on the bridges. Last time they did so, we opened a gap in the sand so that vehicles can pass, but they came back this weekend and heaped more sand. 'Luckily, the river had not flooded, but if it floods, we will have no option but to open the sand heaps again,' said Tatosi, who added that there has been no communication between villages and company authorities.

Residents of the two villages in the North East were left dumbfounded when they woke up the previous Monday morning to find roads leading into their villages inexplicably blockaded by the construction company, whose name is given as Signon.

Heaps of pit sand have been deposited at both ends of the bridges, hence virtually cutting off contact between the two villages.

This is a recurring issue as the company blockaded the villages again last year, but then, people in the villages decided not to demonstrate their indignation. While there has been no explanation from the company involved in the construction, the villagers were left guessing why the company was doing so. And to further demonstrate their ire, the villagers retaliated by removing the pit sand that had been off-loaded, apparently overnight, at both ends of the bridges.

Butale Village Development Committee chairman, Lot Ziga Ndlovu spoke of how that Monday morning when he was transporting children to a crche owned by his wife in Senyawe, he found the bridge connecting the two villages blockaded.

'It is totally unacceptable what these people are doing. If they are having problems with whomever they are having problems, why are they punishing us? It took us sometime before we managed to open a passage on the heaps of sand to cross over to the other side,' a fuming Ndlovu, a retired part-time economics lecturer at the University of Botswana, said then.

'What is even more galling is the fact that no one came to us to let us know what is happening. Last year when the work on the bridges was to start, they came and addressed Kgotla meetings in our villages.

'But now when things are not going well for them, they decided to close the bridges without informing us,' he said. He was in the company of the Senyawe-Butale ward councillor Tatosi who also expressed his outrage and tried to explain what could be the reason behind the blockade. A builder by profession, Tatosi assumed that a sub-contractor who erected the rails on the bridges had not been paid for services rendered and decided to take the law into their hands.

'They have done a shoddy job here and this could be the reason why they are not being paid and instead of negotiating with the government, they decide to take the law into their hands. In the meantime, who suffers? the villagers, of course,' he said.

Tatosi said when the company blockaded the bridges last year, the villagers did not protest, thinking it was a temporary issue, but this time, they have got no option but to protest.

'I do not know what kind of people are these who have the audacity to punish us for having done no wrong at all. But this time we are not taking things lying down. We want them to know that there are people in these villages,' he roared. With the bridges blockaded, both Ndlovu and Tatosi said people are being forced to go right around towards Jackalas 1 before joining the A1 road and then diverging at Mowana to get to Senyawe and vice versa.

'For a distance of less than five kilometers, you end up traveling more than 50km. It is a big problem for public transporters as they get caught by the police on the routes they are not supposed to take,' Ndlovu said.

Mmegi was given contact numbers of a person called Phillip at Signon, which is currently constructing an access road between Mowana and Senyawe. Phillip's cell phone number was off air for the two days we had been trying to call him. This week it was off air again. Meanwhile, Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Guma Moyo confirmed knowledge of the issue and said he had even raised a parliamentary question on it.

'I have been following the issue very keenly. From what I am told, they have requested to be paid way above what had been budgeted for. But what is unacceptable and unfortunate is for the contractor to close the bridges.

'By the way, this is same the contractor doing the access road from Mowana to Senyawe. Don't they realize that they may end up being blacklisted for their actions?' an equally irate Moyo, who was born and bred in the area, scoffed. According to the correspondence dated 20 August, 2009 and faxed to Mmegi by Moyo between the Public Procurement Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) and the Director of Roads, apparently, the Board had rejected a request by the Department of Roads to increase construction costs on the bridges.

Signon wanted P37 011,027.02 as compared to the initial P25 439 153. 25. PPADP threw out the request because the department 'did not revert to the Board for request to increase the cost.'

The correspondence from PPADP starts off by informing the department that 'their retroactive request to increase costs due to increase in quantities, increase in cost due to realignment of bypass and costs associated with extension of time due to additional work was not authorized by the board and is rejected under Section 44 (2) of the ACT.'

The department is further ordered to provide a clause in the contract that allows them to grant extension of time with cost for shortage of material. Further, PPADP says the Board can only approve costs associated with extension of time due to rains and price variations as this is allowed for in the contract.

'Roads d epartment changed the route of the bypass and realized that there will be cost implications, but did not revert to the Board for request to increase the cost.

The department also realised that they underestimated quantities of Gabions, Otta Seal, Guardrail and fill material, but did not revert to the Board after conclusion of the project to request for additional construction costs,' said the correspondence.

The director of Roads declined to comment, but on being pressed, he said he would do so after contacting Moyo and Tatosi. He had not done so by the time of going to press.