PARLIAMENT has been told it has no right to know the full contents of contract agreements that were signed by companies that are building the Polihali Dam. The Natural Resources cluster had asked the Ministry of Natural Resources for the contracts to enable it to deal with workers’ grievances.
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The Mokhotlong district MPs told the cluster that when they approached the companies for talks after they heard they workers’ grievances, they were barred from entering the premises.
The workers were complaining of poor pay, being fed unwholesome food, and that their contracts should be extended to five years.
The Malingoaneng MP, Monethi Ramakalima, said the workers invited him to intervene between them and the contractor but a security guard told him that he had been instructed not to let him in.
“I was expelled by the security guards who told me that they were told not to welcome me,” Ramakalima said.
“The contractor seems to be someone who does not want negotiations and does things how he pleases.”
He said the workers stay far from the construction site in Mapholaneng where they are normally fetched using the contractor’s buses.
“But since the protest, we have been paying truck owners to transport them because the contractor told them that should they fail to show up at the gates they would be expelled,” he said.
Ramakalima complained that the contractor, who is a Chinese national, was feeding workers rotten meat. He said instead of buying meat from local businesses, he was buying from fellow Chinese businessmen.
“They sell rotten meat and do not have a butchery,” he said.
“The Chinese do not even have a storage facility for that meat.”
After hearing this, the cluster chairman Moeketsi Motšoane said parliament should be furnished with policies and documents relating to the project’s agreements.
Motšoane wrote to the Ministry of Natural Resources requesting the documents.
The ministry wrote back last Friday stating that they will not be in a position to give out such information.
The ministry said following the request for information by the portfolio committee on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase II, “the ministry made consultations with both the LHWP and the Lesotho Highland Water Commission regarding the request”.
It said the information contained in the evaluation reports “is confidential as it includes tendering information and strategies from all bidders”.
It added that the information “is confidential and might lead to the company losing its competitive urge”.
“This can result in litigation to the project as this information is governed by prescripts agreed to between the two countries being the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of South Africa,” the letter reads.
It also said the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) had vowed not to divulge such information to anyone who is outside of the organisation.
The letter said as for the contract agreements, “the same information is confidential between the LHDA and the contractors that have been engaged”.
“As a result such information cannot be divulged to anyone without an agreement between the two contracting parties.”
The letter said the ministry and the relevant project authorities are aware and mindful of the portfolio committee’s oversight role and are willing and committed to assisting the committee to perform its role diligently.
Motšoane told thepost that they held a meeting with the ministry earlier this week where they discussed the matter at length.
“We made them aware that the standing orders allow for the committees to be given the information they need,” Motšoane said.
He also said they agreed with the ministry that they should send the documents by today.
“If they do not send them we will meet and decide on how to move forward.”
Nkheli Liphoto
