The Middledrift blockyard could once produce about 8,000 blocks a day, according to former supervisor Monwabisi Nzuzo. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
- A once-thriving blockyard run by the Raymond Mhlaba municipality in the Eastern Cape has slowly been abandoned.
- A chicken abattoir promised a decade ago and described by the municipality as a “catalytic intervention” has never been completed.
- The municipality has not responded to GroundUp’s attempts to find out why.
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 started working at the blockyard as a labourer in October 2013 and was promoted to machine operator and then 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.
“But the new manager came and, boom, we were told there was no money,” he said.
When GroundUp visited the blockyard in September, we found the building had been vandalised and parts of the roof were missing. Electrical cables had been removed, machinery had rusted, and some equipment was covered in grass. An unused forklift and bags of old cement were lying around.
Nzuzo said workers had been told in 2019 that the project had run out of funds, and only he and two security guards remained in employment. Then the covid pandemic hit in 2020 and the project was closed.
According to Nzuzo, before the 2021 local government elections, the municipality attempted to repair the blockyard and replace some of the stolen cables.
Raymond Mhlaba municipality advertised a position for a Middledrift Blockyard foreman in 2021, describing the blockyard as a long-standing project.
The municipality’s 2023/24 financial statements recorded R136,793 in revenue from the sale of building blocks made at the facility.
But Nzuzo said the blockyard was no longer operating by then.
Former supervisor Monwabisi Nzuzo holds one of the blocks he used to make.
Chicken abattoir
A few kilometres from the blockyard is another failed municipal project: the Middledrift chicken abattoir.
In its 2015/16 Integrated Development Plan (IDP), the Nkonkobe municipality listed the Middledrift chicken abattoir as a project to be funded through a R1-million allocation from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
After Raymond Mhlaba municipality was established in 2016, the abattoir continued to appear in planning documents. In its 2021/22 IDP, the municipality described the chicken abattoir as one of two “catalytic interventions” which were to “unlock opportunities and encourage further investments” into Raymond Mhlaba municipality. The municipality said then that numerous meetings had been held about refurbishing the abattoir and a consultant had been appointed to develop “a comprehensive business plan”.
Former DA proportional representation councillor Malixole Ncume, who is also a former ANC ward councillor, said councillors had identified the need for an abattoir during visits to surrounding villages. Chicken farmers had complained that they struggled to find markets for their chickens. An old building belonging to the Eastern Cape Department of Public Works was handed over to the municipality to be refurbished as an abattoir, Ncume said.
Community activist Mxolisi Mnyaka said he started farming chickens after work began on the abattoir.
“We were happy because it was going to create jobs for us, and small farmers had an opportunity to grow their chicken farms,” he said.
But, said Mnyaka, the abattoir had never opened.
He said whenever municipal officials visited the area, residents asked about the abattoir, and promises were made to open it, but these had not been kept.
Repeated attempts by GroundUp over several weeks to get comment from Raymond Mhlaba municipality about the two projects were unsuccessful.
For at least the past seven years, the municipality has received qualified audit opinions.
In its 2024/25 report, the Auditor-General noted irregular expenditure of R90.2-million, up from R27.3-million.
Community activist Mxolisi Mnyaka stands outside the building which was intended as a chicken abattoir.
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