KZN MEC Siboniso Duma cites technical glitches for payment delays

Tags

---

09-05-2025
Read : 13 times
Sunday World
Source

The MEC for Transport in KwaZulu-Natal, Siboniso Duma, has cited technical glitches with the Basic Accounting System (BAS) for the delay in paying contractors in the province.

Duma was responding to the Sunday World following its exclusive story on Tuesday. The story revealed that the R500-million road expansion between Tula Tula and Empangeni has been halted. This happened after the contractor was not paid for months despite submitting invoices.

Contractor halted a R500m road project

The contractor was then unable to pay subcontractors, small and medium businesses and service providers. He then elected to halt the project until further notice.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) I met with the head of the department, [the] chief financial officer and other senior officials in the department. We discussed the rollout of road networks throughout the province.

“We also discussed this matter you have raised and many other delayed payments. And we acknowledge that in the past few weeks, there have been delays with payments to some contractors owing to technical glitches in the Basic Accounting System (BAS). The National Treasury implemented a new version of the Standard Chart of Accounts (SCOA V6) on April 1, 2025. It replaced SCOA V5, which had been in place since 2017,” Duma told Sunday World.

He added that his department is working with the National Treasury to resolve the “glitch” and get the ball rolling again.

Working with Treasury to fix the “glitch”

“We want to assure you that, working with [the] National Treasury and Provincial Treasury, we have taken immediate steps to address these technical issues and prevent future occurrences. Over the past few days, contractors, as service providers, started receiving their payments. And payments, which were loaded into the system, are being paid to the service providers,” he said.

Duma’s response seeks to downplay the fact that the department is technically broke. It has not been able to pay service providers since December last year. And it has been unable to fully operate its yellow plant machinery to maintain some of the provincial roads.