Questions around Collie Koeberg Stadium

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The dilapidated state of the Collie Koeberg Sport Stadium in Graaff-Reinet has been a cause of great concern for many years.

The Graaff-Reinet Advertiser previously reported that the buildings were vandalised, windows were shattered, doors were hanging off their hinges and the fencing and gate were stolen.

This was after work to restore the stadium to its former glory was undertaken in 2019 through a partnership between the local business chamber, the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality (DBNLM) and contractors.

The municipality has since secured funding of R45 000 000 for renewed renovations from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. In 2021 a tender for the job was awarded to Gqeberha-based company, Rudcor Engineering.

Rudcor Engineering has since received two payments totalling more than R19 000 000, but according to rugby administrator Roland Ludick, who is also chairman of the Patriotic Alliance in the region, the completion of the stadium remains significantly delayed, with renovation efforts halted since last year.

Demand answers

"There are many issues around that stadium," says Ludick. "Millions were spent but the sport fields are still in a terrible state and cannot be used." Ludick says the rugby clubs demand an update.

"The last update we received was on 13 February this year when we had a meeting with the municipality.

"At this meeting the municipality promised that we will be updated and have site inspections on a monthly basis. To date there has not been a single site inspection," says Ludick. According to Ludick the municipality also promised that the A-field will be ready within three months, but this has not happened.

Ludick wants answers. "We want to see the quotations and invoices for each and every item in the budget," he says. "We saw that they planted some grass seeds. We want to know whether seed or grass should have been planted on that field.

"We want to know whether they used the correct pipes. We want to see the Bill of Quantities because we want some answers."

The sport field is in a terrible state and cannot be used.Photos: Junaid Oliphant

Rudcor responds

Upon enquiry Rudcor Engineering's Fanie du Toit confirmed telephonically that they were awarded a three-year contract and received two payments in terms of this contract for renovations at the stadium.

He said renovations included partially paving the entry road to the stadium, rebuilding the netball- and tennis courts, upgrading the bathrooms, as well as planting grass on the sport fields and installing root barriers around the fields.

The old asbestos roof of the pavilion was also replaced with a corrugated iron roof since pieces of the asbestos were falling off, posing a health and safety risk.

Extra work

In addition to this, a lot of work, that did not form part of their initial contract with the municipality, also had to be done. Du Toit explained that water to irrigate the grass was pumped from the sewage treatment plant, but the pump broke and had to be replaced.

After replacing the pump, the pipeline also had to be fixed several times.

Du Toit acknowledged that renovations at the stadium are far from finished but, according to him, they delivered far beyond the scope of their contract. "This contract is one of our contracts that we are very proud of," he said.

Du Toit committed to sending a detailed summary of the work done at the stadium, but at the time of going to print the summary had not been received, despite various follow up requests. Du Toit's full comment will be published as soon as it is received.

Feedback to MPAC

Earlier this year an Internal Audit Committee was tasked to investigate all irregular expenditure since the formation of the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Muni-cipality in 2016 until the end of the 2022/2023 financial year and to provide its findings to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).

The payments made to Rudcor Engineering was included in the Irregular Expenditure Reports for the 2021/2022 financial year (R7 557 910,49) and the 2022/2023 financial year (R11 703 645,40) based on the fact that locality was used as a criterion for functionality.

The Auditor General was of the opinion that functionality based on the location of a service provider does not meet the definition of functionality as stated in the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

In terms of the MFMA, functionality pertains to whether or not the bidder has the requisite competencies, qualifications, experiences and capabilities to render the service or deliver the goods.

Cracks in the structure of the pavilion.

No loss, so write-off approved

According to the municipal management, however, the use of location only amounted to a small percentage of the functionality scoring. Based on this, it is not in contradiction of Section 217 of the Constitution that deals with fairness. The municipal management added that the locality criterion was not used to disqualify any bidder, but rather for logistical purposes to complete the work timeously.

They also argued that companies based closer to the place where the work is done, tend to employ more locals, boosting the local economy.

The Internal Audit Committee found that, even though a deviation from the normal Supply Chain Management procedures resulting in non-compliance did occur, no loss was incurred by the municipality and value for money was received.

They recommended that MPAC should consider the write-off of this particular irregular expenditure. This recommendation was approved by MPAC at a meeting on 20 June this year.

Subsequently, the irregular expenditure, including the R19 261 555,89 spent on the upgrade of the Collie Koeberg Stadium, was written off by council.

Graaff-Reinet Advertiser has submitted a request for comment to the municipality and it will be published as soon as received.

The pavilion is dilapidated.