Bhisho defends controversial upgrade for ‘wedding road’

By Sbongile Dimbaza

THE roads and public works department has come under heavy criticism for its decision to upgrade a gravel road near King William’s Town at the request of SA Airways chief executive Khaya Ngqula before his lavish traditional wedding ceremony there at the weekend.

But Masiza Mazizi, spokesman for Premier Nosimo Balindlela – a special guest at Ngqula’s wedding – defended the decision yesterday, saying Bhisho did not understand why upgrading the dusty road should upset anyone.

“Is there something wrong with responding to somebody’s request?” he asked, adding that it was established “courtesy” for the department to respond positively to such requests.

“If we have the necessary resources as the department, we would answer to anybody’s call if it was communicated to us.”

However, Mazizi failed to identify any other case where Bhisho had acted similarly.

The Public Service Accountability Monitor labelled the move as “poor planning”. Adrienne Carlisle, an advocacy and communications head at PSAM, said she had “doubts that if an ordinary member of the community made such a request they would get a similar response”.

She said the department was supposed to be guided by its long-term plans as to which project to work on, rather than act on “somebody’s request”.

Carlisle also lashed out at claims made by provincial transport department spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca that it was “normal practice”.

Kumbaca refused to divulge the amount spent on the project.

DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said it was unfair for the department to take heed of the calls only of those who were “politically connected”.

“The recent development goes to show that our provincial government is less concerned about people at the grass-roots level,” Trollip said.

Ngqula apparently met Balindlela and asked her to see to it that the dusty road leading to his village was given a facelift before his A-list wedding function.

The request was forwarded to Transport MEC Thobile Mhlahlo, who subsequently gave the go-ahead for graders and workers to undertake the project.