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Lobby group urges City of Cape Town to stop awarding ‘mowing tenders’

Lobby group Stop CoCT has called on the City to put a stop to awarding mowing tenders, suggesting they be given out as small projects per ward.

The group was responding to the City, saying its mowing services had been adversely affected by an ongoing appeal related to a mowing tender and that it was facilitating an interim request for a quotation (RFQ) process, which allows service providers to assist with grass cutting and mowing until the tender appeal process is finalised.

With the current annual growth season for grass and other vegetation, numerous complaints about the overgrown vegetation and tree trimming were reported, including the state of the Langa Cemetery. The City said multiple mowing RFQs under R200 000 to address urgent priorities had been advertised and were in the adjudication process.

In addition to this, it said the Recreation and Parks Department had finalised a bulk RFQ process on a month-to-month basis until the tender appeal process had been concluded. Community services and health Mayco member Patricia van der Ross said the cost of previous mowing tenders was about R131 000 000 over a two-and-a-half-year period for all city-zoned public open spaces which include parks, greenbelts and cemeteries.

However, Stop CoCT co-founder Sandra Dickson said the City was incapable of adapting. Dickson said this was an opportunity for the City to create local jobs in wards and stimulate the local economy. “Year after year the City of Cape Town blames the tender process and legal challenges on how these tenders are awarded. One would expect that by now the City would realise that the management of the tenders of the ‘mowing contracts’ is ineffective and challenged year after year.

“A recommendation from Stop CoCT is that the City now has a great opportunity to boost the local economy at ward level by using the RFQ system more effectively to award local businesses the opportunity to get these jobs and therefore create much-needed jobs in the communities,” she said. Alternatively, SA First Forum founding member Rod Solomons said instead of awarding these inflated tenders, the City could employ individuals as it did in the past, giving preference to people in the local community.

“If they need to outsource, they must do this from small enterprises linked to communities on condition that they must employ people from within that particular community and pay them a decent wage. “This opposed to just merely contracting out to someone that makes millions employ people only to pay them a pittance,” he said.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Lobby group urges City of Cape Town to stop awarding ‘mowing tenders’

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