Ngwathe boreholes meeting collapses as lawyers representing Basieng Construction are excluded from the conversation as Sesotho is spoken

Staff Reporter

Bloemfontein – The much awaited meeting between lawyers representing Ngwathe Local Municipality and Basieng Construction has collapsed.

Ngwathe to face water shedding as contractor threatens to switch off 41 boreholes over payment dispute

The meeting was confirmed to this publication by embattled Municipal Manager, Dr Patrick Mothamaha, on Tuesday. It was initiated by the municipality, but its lawyers failed to show up.

Mothamaha had initially said the meeting would be held on 23 September, but that meeting did not happen. This he said unprovoked.

According to information available to this publication, Ngwathe was represented by Mothamaha, Patricia and Tladi Motsoiga, while Basieng Construction was represented by Advocate known to this publication.

Chaos

The meeting descended into chaos after a representative from Basieng Construction was allegedly mistaken for a CFC TV reporter, with Mothamaha allegedly throwing his weight around.

This happened in Sesotho, prompting the lawyer to ask participants to speak English so that everyone could hear and understand what was being discussed.

Instead of calming the situation, things allegedly got worse and she was told where to get offf..

It is further alleged that Mothamaha asked Basieng why they had not brought Scheppers. We will come back to Scheppers.

The meeting now appears to have become another chapter in the long-running saga surrounding the unpaid borehole work.

This is a developing story, as Ngwathe was given three weeks to settle Basieng Construction by the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation and this is now the second week.

Mothamaha flip-flopping

When the story first broke, Mothamaha said the municipality could not process payment for work that had not followed Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes.

But when he was sent videos and pictures of him walking with Victoria De Beer and Basieng Construction, the tune suddenly changed – and meetings were scheduled to discuss the settlement.

From “SCM processes” to settlement meetings the script appears to have changed.

Basieng Construction lawyer didn’t respond to our questions while Dr Patrick Mothamaha it’s lies that they chased Basieng staff member.

“Its a lie we didn’t chase Basieng representatives away ,we meeting next week, Our Meeting Advocate was there.

Our Municipal Advocate was part of the meeting.”

Mothamaha didn’t answer questions about his alleged interest in Scheepers representing Basieng and we will trace how much Scheppers was paid by the municipality.

This story will be updated as soon as her comments come through.

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