CITY of Joburg is spending another R15 million to resume the construction of the Eldorado Park substation after the project was abandoned and later embroiled in scandal.
This comes after a tender was awarded in 2015 to build the substation and R66m was paid to the contractor, yet no work was done.
A Zimbabwean national, Brighton Chifamba, and his company Setheo Engineering, clinched the contract at the time.
However, City of Joburg later found that almost R66m was paid to Setheo without any work being done.
Setheo Engineering was allegedly also found to have been wrongfully appointed to build the substation
Chifamba was arrested last year and charged with theft, money laundering, corruption and fraud.
While Chifamba’s case is ongoing, the city has poured another R15m into the project for its resumption.
City Power’s Isaac Mangena said the Joburg MMC for infrastructure and environment services Mpho Moerane facilitated the resumption of the construction.
The reason, he said, was because the continued stalling and the illegal closure was affecting the infrastructure and the provision of reliable electricity in the area.
Actom, he said, has been appointed as the main contractor in the project.
Moerane said they were expecting everyone involved in the project to work with the community interests in their sight.
“The current substation is failing the community with regular outages and the construction of the new substation cannot be delayed any further," she said.
Moerane also said they had taken precautionary measures to ramp up security to monitor and ensure that there were no disruptions on site.
JMPD and the SAPS will be on standby should there be any disruptions, Moerane said.
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