The Rep 15 October 2021

2 Tel: (045) 839-4040 / editorial: mjekulal@therep.co.za / advertising: charodinev@therep.co.za 15 October 2021 THE R E P R ES E N TAT I V E
No fire truck: ‘Part of Komani gone’
No police: CPF volunteers try save old craft hub
ABONGILE
S O L U N D WA N A
The former Chris Hani Craft
Hub building belonging
to Enoch Mgijima was
consumed by heavy flames on
Monday night.
If it were not for the firefighter
volunteers from the
Community Policing Forum
(CPF) managing to contain the
fire, further damage would h ave
occurred.
The fire started a few
minutes before 11pm.
Not only was the municipal
fire engine u n ava i l a b l e ,
municipal staff, except the fire
chief, were also a no-show.
The police, who were said to
have been contacted, were
nowhere to be seen either.
Chris Hani District
Municipality could not provide
FIRE SCENE: The former Craft Hub building was in flames on
Monday evening Picture: ABONGILE SOLUNDWANA
back-up as its fire engines had
been dispatched to other areas
in the district.
Apparently this was the
fourth fire to have erupted in the
building.
The Rep reported
“‘Incompetence’ cause of
historical building’s demise,
August 6”, that a homeless
person had been found seated
near a fire inside the building.
At the recent fire incident
scene, the CPF’s Johan Reynders
said: “This is a part of Komani
that is gone. We reported this to
the municipality and this is what
happened. We have asked the
council to get the building
barricaded at least, so that
people cannot get in, to get old
zincs to close the window and
doors because this was always
going to happen.’’
Reynders said though the
CPF had chased away people
who were living there many
times, they kept returning.
“They were making fires and
had a sheet of zinc on the floor.
“We would come with fire
extinguishers to put it out and
the next day it would be back.
“This is prime property. The
council could have sold this
building and made money, but
they let it go to ruin.’’
As far as the officials being a
no-show, Reynders said: “Th e y
were all phoned. The municipal
manager said she was leaving it
in the hands of the fire chief.
“How do you leave it in the
hands of a fire chief when he
does not have any resources to
fight the fire with?”
He said the town was in a
huge crisis where it would
eventually reach a tipping point.
He added that there was an
“I do not care attitude”.
“How do you not even come
out and watch your own
resources burn down?
“We have families at home
and we are not firefighters, but
we are here. We can’t give up.”
DA councillor in the EMLM,
Zuko Mandile, who was also at
the scene, said the municipality
was paying security officers to
look after municipal buildings,
something that former ANC
councillor Mncedisi Mbengo
had also alluded to during his
visit to the building in recent
months.
But EMLM spokesperson
Lonwabo Kowa had rejected the
claims.
Mandile said: “Th e
municipality’s fire engine has
not been repaired as there were
no funds to pay the service
p r ov i d e r.” However, Kowa said
the fire engine was undergoing
repairs, and the municipality
wa s not aware of struggles to
pay the service provider.
“As soon as repairs are done,
payment will be made and the
fire engine will be back,” Ko wa
said.
On whether the municipality
would rebuild the structure
through insurance claims, he
said the municipality was
engaging in internal processes
aimed at rebuilding it.
“It is true that Enoch Mgijima
was in advanced stages of
leasing the building out again.
“A number of times, the
building had been refurbished,
only to be vandalised and left in
a bad state. It is unfortunately
not financially possible to have
security personnel at all
facilities 24 hours a day.
“Electricity infrastructure has
also not been spared by thieves
and vandals,” he said.
Construction workers livid over non-payment
ZINTLE BOBELO
Construction workers in
Lesseyton who claim to have
been patient with their
employer for almost two weeks,
downed tools and launched a
protest action over the nonpayment
of salaries on Monday.
Hundreds of workers locked
the gates of a Biz Afrika
construction site, burning tyres
and demanding payment and
answers from management.
“We were told we would get
our money at the end of last
month.
“That did not happen.
“We were then informed
payments would be processed
on October 7. We waited and
that did not happen either.
“There are workers here who
PORK KNUCKLES & STEW
BEEF CHUCK FRESH
MUTTON STEW
SAUSAGE CHAKALAKA
BBQ BRAAIWORS
BEEF MINCE
ROSCO BURGER PATTIES
come from far-flung areas who
are renting in this area.
“They have since been
kicked out by their landlords
because they did not pay their
monthly rental.
“These poor workers are
hungry and have no clue what
they are going to do.
“We have families that we
need to take care of,” said subcontractor
Tembisa Melani.
Project steering committee
member Liziwe Waxa said there
were always glitches when it
came to paying the workers
what was due to them.
This problem, Waxa said,
began sometime in March,
which forced them to contact
officials from the human
settlement department to
address the angry crowd this
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MEC says many cataract blind people unaware of help
Continued from PAGE 1
engaging with patients
at the clinic.
“Frontier Hospital
has been doing some
serious procedures in
terms of ensuring that
people are given back
their vision,” she said.
“In 2009, the World
week. When approached by
The Rep reporter who inquired
about the matter, a site agent
who identified himself as Jacob
Maloto, said the company was
working on a solution to try
address the matter, but he could
not comment any further.
An official from the
department of human
settlement, Zwelithini Manjiya,
arrived at the site to listen to the
wo r k e r s ’ g r i e va n c e s .
Addressing the employees,
Manjiya said the department
had experienced delays in
paying contractors for the
month of September throughout
the province.
He said the department was
experiencing an influx of
invoices which was more than
the cash flow received from
Health Organisation
launched the Right to
Sight initiative and
demanded all countries
reduce preventable
vision impairment and
avoidable blindness by
2020.
“U n o p e ra t e d
OLIVET COLLEGE
national treasury on a monthly
basis. He said this was
communicated to the
contractors in mid-September.
Manjiya said some of the
money due to the construction
company was expected on
Monday, with the next batch to
reflect between Friday and
S a t u r d ay.
The matter of facilitating the
payments was then left with the
c o n t ra c t o r.
A letter addressed to the
subcontractors from Biz Afrika
management this week stated
that the delay was due to the
company not receiving payment
within the relevant time frames
from the department.
“We, however, had a
teleconference discussion with
relevant representatives
cataract and
uncorrected refractive
errors are the leading
causes of vision
impairment.
“Other causes such
as age-related macular
d e g e n e ra t i o n ,
glaucoma, diabetic
retinopathy, infectious
diseases of the eye and
WE ARE HUNGRY: Construction workers in Lesseyton embark
on a protest after not having received their salaries for almost
two weeks Picture: ZINTLE BOBELO
confirming that we should
receive payment that would
enable us to pay the relevant
s u b - c o n t ra c t o r s .
“Upon receiving the
outstanding payments all
outstanding approved
trauma, however,
cannot be ignored and
need to be addressed.”
Meth said the
Eastern Cape draft eye
care plan presented a
serious supply-anddemand
mismatch in
the province.
“The actual number
of surgeries needed is
not enough to match
the need.
“There is an
unacceptably low
surgical productivity.
“In 2008, the
cataract surgical rate
[CSR] in the Eastern
Cape was 1,100.”
She said the
required rate was
4,000.
“We still have a long
way to go, but we are
doing our best towards
achieving this.”
She said 63.7% of
cataract blind people
were unaware of
treatment and 57.8% of
the 63.7% had s e ve r e
visual impairment.
“This means we
have to ramp up our
awareness campaigns
“Continuing to forge
strategic partnerships to
scale up the surgical
productivity is of utmost
certificates up to the end of
September 2021 due to subcontractors
will be paid either
this Friday or Monday morning,
October 18, depending on
when the monies reflect in our
a c c o u n t s ,” the company stated.
importance. The Eastern
Cape blindness
prevention partnership
programme has to
prioritise the scaling-up
of efforts to reach
communities and
extend eye care
s e r v i c e s ,” she said.
Meth said the
department would meet
with the Life Healthcare
Group and SA National
Council for the Blind in
East London this week
to formalise a
partnership that wo u l d
benefit hundreds of
people in need of eye
care services.
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Chris van Heerden, vanheerdenc@arena.africa
Luvuyo Mjekula, mjekulal@therep.co.za
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