A municipal blockyard in Middledrift in the Eastern Cape now stands vandalised, with its machines rusting. A chicken abattoir a few kilometres away never opened, GroundUp reported.
Both projects belong to the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. It was formed in 2016 when the Nkonkobe and Nxuba municipalities merged.
“Every day we had hardware trucks coming here to buy blocks. We were making top-quality blocks and the market was good,” former supervisor Monwabisi Nzuzo told GroundUp.
The blockyard was set up by the old Nkonkobe municipality. Nzuzo said at least 23 people worked there. He joined as a labourer in October 2013 and later became a machine operator and then supervisor.
He said the yard made different blocks and paving slabs, about 8 000 a day. It sold to large hardware stores, small businesses and buyers in nearby villages. It had its own truck and bakkie for deliveries.
Nzuzo said the project started to decline in 2019 after new management arrived. Workers were told the blockyard was no longer making money.
“That was very strange to us,” he said. He said there had even been talk of salary increases under the previous manager.
According to Nzuzo, only he and two security guards stayed on after 2019. The project closed in 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit.
He said the municipality tried to repair the yard and replace stolen cables before the 2021 local government elections.
The municipality’s 2023/24 financial statements recorded R136 793 in revenue from block sales at the facility. Nzuzo said the blockyard was not operating by then.
When GroundUp visited in September, parts of the roof were missing and electrical cables had been removed. Some equipment was covered in grass. An unused forklift and bags of old cement lay around.
The Middledrift chicken abattoir appeared in the Nkonkobe municipality’s 2015/16 Integrated Development Plan. It was to be funded with R1 million from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
In its 2021/22 plan, Raymond Mhlaba municipality called the abattoir one of two “catalytic interventions” for the area. It said a consultant had been appointed to draw up a business plan.
Former councillor Malixole Ncume said councillors saw the need for an abattoir during village visits. He said chicken farmers struggled to find markets for their birds.
Ncume said an old Eastern Cape Department of Public Works building was handed to the municipality to be turned into the abattoir.
Community activist Mxolisi Mnyaka said he began farming chickens after work on the abattoir started. “We were happy because it was going to create jobs for us,” he said.
Mnyaka said the abattoir never opened. He said officials made promises to open it whenever residents asked, but these were not kept.
GroundUp said it tried for several weeks to get comment from the municipality on both projects, without success.
The municipality has received qualified audit opinions for at least seven years. The Auditor-General’s 2024/25 report found irregular expenditure of R90.2 million, up from R27.3 million.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Moneyweb. Image: Moneyweb. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.