12 November 2008
The provincial transport and public works department is considering terminating the contract it has with Entilini Concession, the company contracted to operate and maintain Chapman's Peak drive.
This comes almost five months after the closure of the popular tourist route in June, due to mudslides and rockfalls caused by heavy winter rains.
Hannes Mouton, acting executive manager of road and transport management, told the Finance and Economic Development standing committee on Tuesday that their legal team had started looking into the issue of ending the contract, as Entilini refuses to repair the road, demanding an upfront payment.
"That is an option we are considering, but we have to consider all options," said Mouton, responding to committee member Robin Carlisle's question on whether it wasn't time the province ended relations with Entilini.
"This is a disastrous relationship and it gets worse every year," said Carlisle.
Department head Thami Manyathi also told the Cape Argus that no work was being done at the moment to restore or reconstruct the road, as Entilini demanded an advance payment from the department before they could do any work on the route.
Manyathi said this demand was deviating from the contract the department has with the concessionaire, which stipulated that the company should do the work and claim the money later.
"In terms of the contract, when there's damage, they go ahead and fix it and then come back and claim the money. It's how we have been working with them since 2003." he said.
Manyathi said that after considering the risk factor to be too high with further potential rockfalls, Entilini had suggested that the road be closed.
"According to their (Entilini's) assessment, there was too high a risk. And since their contract is around risk management, we agreed to close the road.
"But our assessment now is that, as we move to the drier months, the risk should be minimising."
Manyathi said his department was "proceeding with caution" and didn't want to insist that the road be opened.
"We know the tourism season is approaching, but we don't want the risk should anything happen."
Entilini operates under a public private-partnership concession with the Western Cape government.
The operations phase includes the maintenance of rockfall safety systems, traffic management systems and ongoing maintenance of roadside vegetation and management of picnic sites.
The road was closed for almost four years after a motorist was killed by falling rocks in December 1999. It was reopened as a toll road in December 2003.
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