A payment dispute involving over 40 small businesses - and which has dragged on for almost two decades - looks set to be finalised in the next 30 days, after the Public Protector recently ruled that the Gauteng Human Settlements Department must pay the contractors a total of R12m for work done on a low-cost housing project in Alexandra, Johannesburg, in the late 1990s.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane ruled in favour of 42 of 45 companies in a December 2018 report.
Mkhwebane's office detailed the outcome of the investigation and its directives in a series of tweets on Friday.
The Public Protector said Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Uhuru Moiloa has assured her that his department will settle with all the affected parties in line with the directives set out in Mkwhebane's report.
The businessman's company and 44 others are owed amounts ranging from R400 to R900 000.
The pensioner, who founded his business in 1990 after resigning from a leading construction company, told Mkhwebane that some of the people who were waiting to be paid by the provincial government may even have died while waiting for justice.
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