The Eastern Cape municipality where projects quietly die

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The Middledrift blockyard, run by the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, used to produce building blocks. Today, machinery stands unused in a vandalised…

The Middledrift blockyard, run by the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, used to produce building blocks. Today, machinery stands unused in a vandalised building. A few kilometres from the blockyard is another failed municipal project – a chicken abattoir.

The blockyard was established by the former Nkonkobe Local Municipality before the Nkonkobe and Nxuba municipalities were merged in 2016 to form Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. At least 23 people worked at the blockyard a few kilometres from the town, according to former supervisor Monwabisi Nzuzo.

Nzuzo told GroundUp, he started working at the blockyard as a labourer in October 2013 and was promoted to machine operator, then to supervisor.

He said the blockyard produced various types of blocks and paving slabs, and could produce about 8 000 a day.

He said it supplied large hardware stores, smaller businesses and customers in Middledrift and surrounding villages. The blockyard had its own truck and bakkie for deliveries.

But, Nzuzo said, the project began to decline in 2019 after a change in management.

“We were then told that the blockyard was no longer making money. That was very strange to us,” he said.

“Every day we had hardware trucks coming here to buy blocks. Cement companies were always here making presentations about their cement. We were making top-quality blocks, and the market was good,” he said.

He said that under the previous manager there had even been discussions about salary increases because the project was generating enough income to afford them.

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