Tzaneen Dam wall – project in progress

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29-09-2023
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Letaba Herald
Source

The Department of Water and Sanitation and the Greater Tzaneen Municipality met with residents last month discussing the tender processes relating to the Tzaneen Dam wall, which have opened.

Noma Rakoma of the Development Bank of South Africa remarked that the tender advertisement includes the standard procedures of processes. All information relating to the project is published on the DBSA website, and this is also where stakeholders can get more information, Rakoma said. The tender documents itself consists of three volumes:

“Volume one has the standard procedures on what will be required from applicants; volume two provides guidance and the number of steps; and volume three relates the process that applications go through before being approved”. Rakoma said they currently have four projects underway for which briefings had already been concluded.

Construction on the raising of the Tzaneen Dam wall started between May and June, and according to the Department of Water and Sanitation, an access route (Deerpark Road) has also been completed to enable heavy-duty vehicles to access the construction site. “We are currently finalising the river diversion by redirecting water from a normal passage (sluice gates) of flow out of the dam through a pipe to rejoin the river, in order to enable construction to commence.

To date the DBSA as the implementing agent has started with the procurement of materials required for the project, and such five tenders are in the evaluation phase,” Wisani Mavasa, departmental spokesperson confirmed. She said a Project Steering Committee has been established, consisting of seven community members representing communities from the four wards in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality – wards 13, 14, 15, and 16.

“Their role is to ensure that the communities are continuously informed on the progress. A community liaison officer has been appointed for the duration of the project and a multi-stakeholder meeting is convened monthly to keep all stakeholders informed,” she said. A total of 41 general labourers have been appointed to date, and the process of appointing 22 semi-skilled and skilled personnel including drivers, machinery operators, admin clerks and the like, is underway.

“The next phase will start once procurement has been concluded and all material is delivered on-site, and only then will the actual construction start,” Mavasa concluded.