Concerns arise over abandoned Ga-Masha Bridge project

Ga-Masha/MaSeven

Bolsheviks Party of South Africa (BPSA) Leader, Seun Mogotji, said the party is shocked that the bridge that was constructed about a year ago at Ga-Masha Village in Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM) Ward 29 is still not complete.

The bridge is on the access road that links Ga-Masha and MaSeven Villages. According to residents, the gravel road where the bridge was supposed to be built is inaccessible at all with dongas everywhere. Residents claim the situation becomes worse during rainy seasons where scholars from Ga-Masha who attend school in Maseven are forced to skip school.

Mogotji said he made the discovery during his visit to the area on Saturday 6 April 2024 and had already approached FTLM for clarity. He alleges that over R40 Million was spent for the construction of the incomplete bridge after the old one was washed away by heavy rains.

According to Mogotji, the bridge is incomplete because of poor workmanship and poor quality of the material that was used by the contractor.

“These are fairly new bridges but poor workmanship and the use of poor-quality material is the reason the bridges are like that.  I wonder if the contractor and his team were paid in full over such shoddy job,” exclaimed Mogotji.

Mogotji indicated that he wrote an open letter to FTLM to ask if there are plans in place to complete the bridge and also if the bridge will be safe for use by the public because it was shoddily constructed from scratch.

“If the contractor refuses to co-operate, is there an intention from the municipality to involve law enforcement agencies to investigate and arrest anyone found to be in the wrong? Public money was clearly misused here and the people of Maseven and Ga-Masha still have no proper and safe bridge,” he said.

FTLM Spokesperson, Thabiso Mokoena, said the bridge construction falls under Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) and the agency was made aware of the problem.

When asked for a comment, RAL Spokesperson, Danny Legodi, promised the publication a soonest response. However, his response could not reach the paper at the time of going to press.