IN PICS: Upgrade of KZN school faces delays amid impact of construction mafia

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06-08-2026
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The Mercury
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The construction of Sibonginhlanhla Primary School in Waterloo, Verulam, is facing a year-long delay, pushing the completion date to June 2027.

Despite a R73.9 million budget, the school is only 53% complete, plagued by a toxic mix of extortion by the construction mafia, severe contractor performance issues, and persistent payment disputes, with costs now ballooning to R84.3m.

KwaZulu-Natal Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer expressed disappointment that the promised school, scheduled for completion this month, will instead be delayed by another year.

“I am highly disappointed at what I saw here today, but I’m also hopeful in a sense that the department’s already started taking steps and we are going to improve this, and we will finish this school,” Meyer said. 

The MEC said the R73.9m project started in September 2023 and was scheduled to be completed in this month.

However, issues like delays in contractor payments also affected timeous payments to local subcontractors; contractor’s poor performance and unacceptable quality; contractor’s financial constraints, despite the 9GB grading; inconsistent site management resources; work package disagreement between the contractor and local subcontractors; and extortionists. 

“As a result of the above-mentioned obstacles, the progress of the project regressed, and as a result, the current progress is at 53% against a time lapse of 97%.

This means the project is only at the halfway mark at a time period meant for its completion,” Meyer said. 

He said that due to a 53% progress rate, the project will miss its August deadline and is now expected to be completed next June.

“Not only has the delay cost us time, but it has pushed up the cost of the project from the initial R73.9m to R84.3m,” Meyer said. 

Regarding the contractor, Meyer explained that due to unresolved cash flow and performance issues, the department issued several notices to the contractor, and unfortunately, none of the recovery commitments agreed upon between the department and the contractor to get the project back on track was met.

The department initiated contract termination proceedings after a July 7, 2026, notice lapsed.

This means the department is now commencing the termination of the contract process.

Simultaneously, there have also been issues of a lack of quality control by project consultants, which has led to the principal-agent being placed on terms.

Meyer added that the challenges and actions with regard to the contractor and principal-agent by KZN Public Works and Infrastructure were not without assistance provided to them. 

Mbongiseni Duma of Khulakwande Construction said they started between October and November 2023. However, problems started shortly after they began. 

“Within every 12 months, the department only pays us three times a year. We could afford it because possibly we were cross-funding the project with other projects that we are doing elsewhere. With the hope that payment patterns would improve as time progressed. But we could not see an improvement in terms of payment patterns until last year, when obviously we could no longer sustain helping the department,” Duma said. 

He said they informed the department they could no longer sustain self-funding the project, noting the financial limits of even a Grade 9 firm.

Meyer subsequently ordered a temporary pause on all Department of Education projects to resolve payment disputes between Public Works and Education. 

“At that time, we couldn’t stop because we had too much material already here at the school that we had procured to continue building,” Duma said. 

“We reached a stage where we were getting tired, and we informed them that we were considering abandoning the project altogether because we couldn’t cope. They came back to us and said, ‘let’s see if there are plans we can collaborate on so that we can continue with the project without abandoning it’.” 

Duma said the department promised that there was enough money and would be able to pay on time.

However, when they continued to work, the first claim they submitted took about 90 days to be paid. 

“Again, we are back now to the same problem we had before. That is the main reason causing the delay,” Duma said. 

He said the department ignored 15 months of Extension of Time requests regarding payment delays, material changes, weather, and community disruptions, leaving them to manage these challenges alone.

Furthermore, multiple attempts to meet with the MEC and HODs were unsuccessful.