Kanye residents up in arms with road contractor

Innocent Selatlhwa | Thursday November 23, 2017 16:10

They accuse the company of playing hide and seek.

The company was early this year in the news headlines in connection with a bridge that collapsed on Christmas day in Moshupa.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, through Roads Department in partnership with the World Bank is implementing Output and Performance-based Road Contracts (OPRCs) under Botswana Integrated Transport Project (BITP) geared to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of road operations.

Package One was awarded to ELSAMEX – ITNL JVCA, a joint venture between ELSAMEX from Spain and IF&LS Transportation Networks Limited from India, at a contract amount of over P1 billion for the entire 10 year project period. Works commenced in May 2014

“They hired my Toyota Hilux 2.7 in November 2015 with an agreement that they would be paying me monthly, but they have failed to pay me all my dues. They owe me more than P45,000 in monthly rentals and I have since taken back my car three months ago after realising they had no intentions of working cordially with me,” one Boingotlo Kruger lamented.

Kruger said in addition to the rental monies, she found out that her car was flagged after one of the company driverwas charged for a traffic offence. She also complained that her car was in a bad state as the company prepared concrete mix on the bakkie.

Kruger said all attempts to get answers and payments were in vain. “Those people do not care, they never give me proper answers. I went to complain to the Roads Department as I expected their protection. They are overseers of this project. Unfortunately, they told me they could not get involved as the agreement was between myself and the company,” she said.

Linda Segabo also rented out her two vehicles hoping to make some earnings but she is left with damaged vehicles. “I had two cars with them being a Toyota Hilux D4D and a Navara. They put petrol instead of diesel on the Hilux last year and promised to fix it but to date it is still not moving. After throwing me from pillar to post they promised to pay me P78,000 as per our agreement, to date they are refusing to pay the money. They have also stopped paying me monthly rentals for the car,” she said. Segabo said the company has brought hardships to her life, as she had taken a loan to buy one of the cars.

“They have not paid me for the Navara for five months and I asked them to fix it and bring it back. They said they will only fix the rear door of the bakkie, yet they took the car in an excellent condition,” she said. Segabo said attempts to get help from the Roads Department proved futile as she was told that the department had nothing to do with the agreement they had with the company. She said the deal cost her a lot, as she is now struggling to make ends meet and there is no sign of help.

Kutlo Mahalelo who rented out two Mazda 3 cars and a combi to the company is also crying foul that the company has damaged her cars and failed to pay her forcing her to terminate her contract with them.

“They failed to honour the agreement by not paying monthly as promised. The agreement was that we only fix mechanical problems while they deal with the rest, but I took back my cars in a sorry state after they refused to fix them,” she said. Mahalelo said she is taking the matter to court.

Attempts to get a comment from Elsamex manager, Surrender Singh proved futile as he evaded questions from the publication. On the first attempt on Tuesday, Singh claimed we have contacted a wrong number and hung up.

We called again and Singh claimed to be in a meeting. On Wednesday, Singh answered his phone but hung up after realising it was the same reporter once again seeking clarity from him. This was then followed by an sms asking Singh to respond to allegations levelled against the company, stating that failure to respond would lead to the story being published without their comment.

Senior Superintendent Reuben Mphoeng said both Sejelo and Kanye Police stations have received reports from members of the public.

“We referred all the cases to Department of Labour and told them that if they cannot be resolved, the Department would then write to us so that we can institute legal proceedings against the company,” he said. Mphoeng, however said there has not been any referral from Labour on the matter.

Contacted, Transport and Communications Minister, Kitso Mokaila said they were not aware of the complaints of the car owners. “We are not aware of the issue. Our expectation when we give out a tender is that the job is done well and that Batswana are given sub-contracts. We also have interest in knowing that the company works with the sub-contracted well and pay them fairly as we will look at such aspects when considering them for a tender in the future,” he said.

Mokaila said he recently visited the sites the company is working on and there were some complaints by employees that they were not paid. “We realised that while the payments are output based, instead of focusing on finishing a short distance and getting paid, they do long stretches which lead to them running out of money which then leads them to failing to pay their dues.

We have since advised them to work on completing shorter distances so they could manage a healthy cash flow and be able to pay their dues.”

Mokaila called on Batswana to have proper contracts with the contractors so that they can be able to seek legal recourse in case the contractor does not meet their end of the agreement.