"We will finish this project. We have to. Otherwise we will pay for the delay if we don't finish on time," said Mr. Liu, the administration officer at the construction site.
Liu said the project should be completed in two years and three months, which means it has to be completed in 2009.
According to Liu, his company has employed about 900 people who are from different villages such as Moshupa, Thamaga, Mogoditshane including Oodi and the surrounding villages. He said they expect to employ more people when the real construction of structures starts in three months time to increase the labour force they already have.
Liu said they currently have a number of subcontractors. "There is still a shortage of subcontractors because there is too much work to be done at this stage and we are in the process of increasing them so that we can beat the deadline." When asked what could have caused their delay by two months, Liu said when they started in January this year their materials were stolen.
"Bags of cement, copper pipes, wheelbarrows and diesel were stolen," said Liu. He said he does not remember the exact number of bags of cement and the amount of stolen diesel. "I can confirm to you that so far we have bought four wheelbarrows last week to replace the stolen ones."
Liu said they have arrested two suspects who are helping the police with investigations and have remained in custody.
"Two more suspects were arrested and later released and we were not told what transpired that resulted in their release without charge," said a disappointed Liu.
He mentioned that the two suspects held in custody are their employees and they are residents of Oodi. Those who were released belong to the subcontracted company. Meanwhile, another official of Tuwana Construction Company, Jing who is the project administrator said "we need help from the community to find some of the culprits because materials continues to disappear." He said they are happy that the two suspects held in custody were arrested with the help of the community.
Jing said if stealing of their materials does not stop it will be difficult for them to beat the project deadline "and we don't want this to happen."
Police investigations are continuing.
