Minister Hlongwane
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
CONTRACTORS and service providers of the 2014 African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Games that were held in Bulawayo have threatened to stage a sit-in at the Sport and Recreation Ministry offices in Harare to force the government to pay them.
The contractors and service providers are believed to be owed in the region of $1,5 million. They told Chronicle Sport yesterday that they were tired of false promises as most of them were now facing viability problems and possible closure.
“We have decided to go to their (Ministry of Sport and Recreation) offices now because this is too much. We can’t go for two years without receiving our payment,” said a supplier.
“They had promised to deposit our money on Monday (April 11), but nothing has been done. We phoned the Permanent Secretary in the Sport and Recreation Ministry (Godfrey Chipare) and we were told that due to the burial of the late heroines Vivian Mwashita and Victoria Chitepo, as well as the Independence Day celebrations, that was no longer possible.”
Another supplier said the authorities had assured them in the presence of the regional organising committee that they would make good their payments by March 18, which passed with nothing.
“The financial statement presented was said to be unqualified and we wondered how, when we were owed so much. We are now facing litigation, while some employees have been laid off as a result of the non-payment. This is totally against what the government said prior to the Games. We are now worse off than we were before we took up the Games’ projects,” said another supplier.
In April last year, President Robert Mugabe ordered then Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Andrew Langa to ensure suppliers were paid as a matter of urgency.
When Chipare was reached for comment yesterday, he said the ministry’s media policy was that the minister (Makhosini Hlongwane) deals with all media enquiries.
Hlongwane was taken aback by the suppliers’ claims that they were promised payment on Monday.
“I don’t remember that; who promised them? Are you sure you are not mixing issues here because funds that were released on Monday were for the Paralympics Games? What I know is that as a ministry, we budgeted for $6 million, which would allow us to pay off all these things, but it was reduced to $900,000, which is yet to be released by treasury,” said Hlongwane.
The suppliers were, however, unmoved and said they held a number of meetings with Chipare, who kept assuring them that their money was coming.
“We met Chipare, not once, but on many occasions, after the minister referred us to him because he said he was not the accounting officer, but the permanent secretary,” said a supplier.
Hlongwane said maybe Chipare had since received the money from treasury.
“He has not briefed me on those promises, particularly that money was supposed to have been released on Monday,” Hlongwane said.