Elections 2026: Elundini municipality’s trail of unfinished projects

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28-05-2026
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Ground Up
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Millions have been spent on government offices, a vehicle testing station, a community hall, a sports field and electronic billboards - all incomplete

• Elundini Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape has a string of incomplete projects spanning more than a decade, including what was meant to be a 300-office government complex.
• A community hall certified as complete has no electricity, running water or functioning toilets, and a leaking roof; a R13-million vehicle testing station remains unfinished; and none of the three digital billboards costing over R850,000 are operational.
• The municipality is hoping that a returning mayor, who held senior positions during administrations that oversaw many of the failed projects, will turn things around.

Families living in Elundini Local Municipality have been waiting years for various projects worth millions of rand to be completed.

The municipality has now turned to familiar leadership in an attempt to rebuild public confidence. In April, a special council meeting in Nqanqarhu replaced the chief whip and senior portfolio heads, and appointed Nonkongozelo Lengs (ANC) mayor.

Lengs had been deployed to Joe Gqabi District Municipality, but now returns for a third term in Elundini.

However, many of the municipality’s unfinished projects date back to administrations in which she held senior positions.

The ANC holds 28 of the 34 seats in council.

Incomplete goverment offices

Elundini includes the towns of Tlokoeng (Mount Fletcher), Nqanqarhu (Mclear) and Ugie.

Among the major unfinished projects is a government office complex in Tlokoeng.

In 2015, the provincial public works department awarded a R124-million tender to company Naivest 46 to build an office complex for several departments, including social development, education and cooperative governance.

It was to include 300 offices, toilets storerooms, boardrooms, fencing and generators. Construction, which began in 2016, was expected to be completed by 2018. R24-million has been spent but today only steel structures and concrete poles are visible.

Public works spokesperson Vuyani Nkasayi said the contract was terminated because of poor performance. He said the department currently does not have the funding to continue construction.

Meanwhile, government departments in Tlokoeng operate from rented buildings, including private residences.

Community leader Mathibela Lephafa said residents were frustrated that some government offices are now being relocated to Sterkspruit, several hours away.

Vehicle testing station

In Isolomzi location, outside Tlokoeng, construction of a R13-million vehicle testing station began around 2019 but is still not finished.

Municipal manager Jack Mdeni said the project was completed according to specifications provided by the transport department. However, the department then requested additional work, including bulletproof windows, filing rooms and upgrades to the testing pit. He said the municipality was still trying to source the necessary funding.

ATM PR councillor Lunga Botomani said they believe the facility has been built in a wetland and “the problem is bigger”.

Community hall

A few kilometres away, residents of Isolomzi say their community hall was certified as completed, yet it has no electricity, running water or functioning toilets. They also say the roof leaks.

“This hall is supposed to generate revenue for the community, but who will hire a hall with no electricity or proper toilets?” asked Lephafa.

Municipal reports reveal residents repeatedly asking the municipality to complete the project.

Mdeni said the municipality has no plans to spend more money on the hall. He blamed the delay in electrification on Eskom.

UDM PR councillor Akhona Masondo said when attending meetings “we either hold it in or relieve ourselves behind the hall”.

She said incomplete projects with completion certificates had become common in the municipality. She blamed “poor administration”.

Sports field

In nearby Nkululekweni location, the Mount Fletcher sports field project started in 2012 and has cost R7.8-million.

Mdeni says it was completed in 2019, but vandalised before it could be handed over to the community.

But residents say the project involved multiple contractors and was never fully completed. It has mast lights that have never worked, they say.

Mabona Civils and Plant Hire director Andile Mbele said the company was not responsible for the entire project. He promised to provide details to GroundUp but has not done so.

When we visited, we found a collapsing pit toilet and a small structure which might serve as a changing room.

Another failed municipal initiative is the digital billboards installed between 2019 and 2022 in Nqanqarhu, Tlokoeng and Ugie at a cost of about R850,000. These were meant to promote municipal programmes. None of the three are operational.

Mdeni said the billboards operated for three years but were switched off when their maintenance contract expired. The municipality has failed to secure a local maintenance provider and is developing a new revenue strategy for advertising on the billboards, he said.

Residents told GroundUp the billboard in Ugie never worked and the others operated only briefly.

Irregular expenditure

Chairperson of the Ugie Residents Association Sindi Phama questioned the municipality spending R650,000 on just ten hawker stalls.

But Mdeni said the project had been audited and had not been flagged as irregular or wasteful expenditure.

According to the municipality’s draft annual report for the financial year ending June 2025, Elundini accumulated irregular expenditure of R22.4-million because proper tender processes were not followed.

The report states that the municipality remains heavily dependent on grants and struggles to collect revenue from residents. The municipality recorded a loss of R19.4-million during the financial year, down from the R31.7-million loss recorded in 2024.

Mdeni acknowledged that the municipality faced serious financial pressures, saying many residents were unable or unwilling to pay for municipal services.

Opposition councillors Masondo and Botomani said they welcomed Lengs’s return, noting that Elundini last received a clean audit during her previous term in office.

“Now we don’t have money. Funds meant for service delivery are being used to pay workers and loans. That is why service delivery is suffering in this municipality,” said Masondo.

But Phama was sceptical that the return of Lengs would restore good governance. He said the accounting officer, who is the municipal manager, should have been removed, if there was to be meaningful reform.

“We can only wait and see,” he said.