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Overview of MISA's assessment on services upgrade compliance in settlement between Richtersveld Community and Alexkor.
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MISA Verification of services upgrade as per Deed of Settlement between the Richtersveld Community and AlexkorWednesday , 22 November 2017 Mr Ntandazo Vimba and Henri Marais 22 NOVEMBER 2017
PRESENTATION OUTLINE Purpose Introduction and Background MISA’s Scope of Work Findings Unresolved issues Conclusion Suggested Way Forward.
PURPOSE • To brief the Portfolio Committee on the role of MISA in verifying compliance to the Deed of Settlement between the Richtersveld Community and Alexkor.
BACKGROUND • The town of Alexander Bay was originally developed as a mining town to provide accommodation and services to the employees of ALEXKOR, a Public Owned Enterprise (POE), mining for diamonds in the Ricthersveld Local Municipal area. • Alexander Bay is situated in the Ricthersveld where one of the biggest land claims in the history of the country had been lodged. • A court order settling the land claim, lead to an agreement between ALEXKOR Ltd and the Richtersveld Local Municipality regarding the hand-over of the town and its infrastructure to the municipality. • The Deed of Settlement contained conditions of which two are relevant to the support requested:
BACKGROUND continued • That the mining town be converted into a formally established and proclaimed town by means of a formal township establishment application. (2) That the engineering services infrastructure be upgraded to that required for township establishment standard. Condition (1) was met with, the town of Alexander Bay formally being established and proclaimed in November 2013.
BACKGROUND continued The content of condition (2) can be summarised as follows: It was agreed between the Ricthersveld Local Municipality and ALEXKOR that the original engineering infrastructure, which was not planned and constructed to the required township establishment standards, would be upgraded as follows: • ALEXKOR would up-grade the infrastructure to the required standard after which the Richtersveld LM would officially take over responsibility for providing engineering services. • In terms of the agreement a status quo services report had to be compiled, indicating the standard of engineering services and recommendations on how to upgrade those services that were not up to standard.
BACKGROUND continued • A report titled “Engineering Services Report” was compiled and submitted by KV3 Consulting Engineers, which also contained a “Drawings Plan Book” which detailed the various services and the up-grades required (where applicable). • Based on this report ALEXKOR appointed consulting engineers to oversee the identified upgrades and to certify that these had been done in accordance with the specifications. • ALEXCOR indicated in 2013 that it had complied with the court order/agreement and that the upgrades had been completed and certified by Worley Parsons RSA (Pty) Ltd. • In February 2017 the municipality had not yet taken over custodianship of Alexander Bay. The main reason for this was that the Municipality had not been able to conduct an assessment of the services installed.
BACKGROUND continued • The Acting MM requested COGHSTA and the Department of Public Enterprises to provide assistance in this regard in order to be able to inform the new council on the progress with the implementation of the Deed of Settlement. • A joint committee consisting of COGHSTA, COGTA, DPE, SALGA, ALEXKOR, MISA and NC Provincial Treasury met on 30 January 2017 to determine ways of expediting the hand-over.
MISA’s Scope of Work • The meeting resolved that MISA and DCoG would make capacity available to assess the situation by doing a comparative desk-top study of the agreed-to improvements measured against completion certificates issued, and compile a summary report. • The report would indicate the projects that had been completed and those outstanding – if any, and would serve as a basis for identifying steps to be taken to complete the hand-over process.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES • Given the condition of the roads and potentially high cost of upgrading them, the Richtersveld Local Municipality is not eager to take over that responsibility. • The municipality has indicated that discussions with Alexkor were held to resolve this and other issues but that no agreement has as yet been reached. • The Richtersveld Municipality escalated the matter to the Office of the Premier in September 2017, requesting the OtP to facilitate a meeting of role players to resolve the matter. • Actual transfer of the town is being delayed because of these unresolved issues
CONCLUSION • By-and-large Alexkor has complied with the requirements of the Deed of Settlement with regard to the improvement of water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure in the town of Alexander Bay. • Not sufficient evidence could be found to indicate that the Roads and Storm Water infrastructure had been upgraded to the required standard. • The Richtersveld Local Municipality is not eager to take on the responsibility and cost of the required roads and storm water upgrades.
SUGGESTED WAY FORWARD • The Office of the Premier (Northern Cape Province) should take a lead in arranging for the stakeholder meeting requested by the municipality as a matter of urgency. • The process to be formalized through a multi-disciplinary Task Team to be established at the meeting referred to above.
