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Some of Morolo’s problems include payment of R10.5 million without any work being done, R100 million underspending and  R1.2 billion irregular expenditure

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Sizwe sama Yende

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The Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport may not recover R10.5 million it paid to a contractor who failed to complete a R145.7 million stretch of road.

The contractor, Mhonyini Trading, was liquidated in July 2022 after two companies lodged an application in the Mpumalanga High Court. The department was however not part of this court action – which may mean that it did not attempt to recover the money it lost.

The Select Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has nonetheless instructed the head of department, Morake Charles Morolo, to recover the money in its report dated February 10 2025.

Mhonyini Trading was awarded the contract to upgrade the D4407 road between Hluvukani and Timbavati in 2020 for a period of 20 months. However, along the line, the company was beset by cashflow problems and failed to pay and its employees.

According to the Scopa report, Morolo explained that the company’s contract was terminated due to poor performance and a replacement was appointed to complete the project. 

Morolo concedes that the company was paid for “some work not done.”

“At the time of termination, the contractor was paid for the preliminaries and general, material on site removed, contract price adjustments and payment of some work not done,” the report quotes him.

“This was only identified when re-measuring took place after the contract was terminated. The resulting over-payment was therefore not necessarily

due to negligence on the part of the Department, seeing that the value of works would eventually have been in proportion to the final payment made to the contractor, if the project had proceeded to completion as planned.”

Morolo said that the incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure bas been submitted to Internal Audit for further investigation. 

“A recovery process will be instituted with the guarantor of the said contract on the outcome of the investigations. The Department has, moreover, put in place checks and balances to enable tracking of project expenditure during the payment approval process and preliminary reconciliation on a quarterly basis.”

It however remains to be seen if the department will find any money of the taxpayers’ money after the liquidation by FA Kontruksie CC and Aspatlic (Pty) Ltd.

Departmental spokesperson, Bongani Dlamini, did not respond to written questions.

The DA has since written to the Public Protector and the Special Investigating Unit to investigate the department. “The DA wants the department to be investigated on why the contractor was paid over R10.5 million even though the contract was terminated due to poor performance,” said the party’s legislature member, Tebogo Sekaledi.

Sekaledi said that the DA preferred that the matter be investigated externally. 

The department’s problems do not end with the road project. The Scopa report indicates that:

·  It is facing 107 litigation cases amounting to R433 million resulting from pothole damages and contractual disagreements;

·  Paid transport owners who exposed learners to danger for using unroadworthy vehicles;

·  Overspent on the R421.7 million Mkhondo boarding school and eventually paid R627.5 million;

·  The department incurred R1.2 billion in irregular expenditure and R591.2 million of this amount was caused by failure to follow competitive bidding processes;

·  Underspending by R100 million on transport and infrastructure projects.

Scopa has recommended that MEC Thulasizwe Thomo should take disciplinary action against Morolo for his failure to implement Scopa and portfolio committee decisions, and for failure to implement a developed audit action plan.

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