ENGEN NO SHOW

ENGEN was as per meetings to start on the 20th of May with removal of underground tanks and other related equipment. This has been ongoing since August 2022. They came to site 20th May, 2024 and put of our pumps and disconnected everything. From that day on they have not been back on site and have not given any information regarding this matter. When calling Mandla(project manager) it is just some nonsense about environmental documents and internal stuff. Yet since 20 February I told Refilwe(project manager) and Mandla about what is required legally. We even had our lawyer draft a letter to send to them about this matter and yet they still ignored it and provide nothing. We are losing money at an alarming rate and they just don't care.

After speaking to Mandla this morning he said he is going to send the team. When I spoke to Refilwe she says she is waiting for Mandla. Mandla told the contractor he is waiting on Refilwe. So who is doing what? Who is running this project? This is beyond unacceptable. They are two weeks behind schedule. Why cant they provide us with the information that we require? Why aren't they on site working?

Nobody from this team seems capable of running this project or atleast communicate.

This is an email sent by Mandla as an excuse for failure to execute prelims for this project after we asked multiple times.

"Your query is received and acknowledged.

Please kindly note the assets removal works have been delayed as no authorization has been received yet from the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environment Affairs. Due to the capacities of the tanks to be removed exceeding 80m3 there is a trigger for an Environmental Authorisation (EA) to be app**** for prior to commencing with the removal process. We have written an enquiry to the authority seeking confirmation on whether the EA is required or not (in an event a similar capacity is installed on the site). Should an EA be required, the Basic Assessment process will need to be followed to obtain this and this process is legislated at 6 months. Removal of the equipment without approval or confirmation of approval not being required is ********.

If an EA is not needed, we may then remove the equipment upon confirmation by the authorities. This is the approvals we are currently waiting for and have assigned a consultant to follow-up to expedite the process.

Apologies for the delays to respond to your queries and we will provide timeous feedback going forward. “

This followed by this email that was sent by another ENGEN representative( Refilwe) 3 July, 2023

"Good day Corrie,

This serves to inform you that Engen will not be matching the MBT Petroleum offer as presented.

As such, we will be removing Engen assets off site through the internal closure process.

Our maintenance team together with some service providers will be on site to do costing for our closure process.

A firm of Environmental Consultants will be nominated to come on site and assess for the departmental compliance on the removal of equipment (pumps, lines, tanks) and signage is done in accordance.

We will also be engaging MBT Petroleum where necessary so the closure process is done properly.

Kind regards"

They even sent an asset register and an asset verifier to site to confirm all of their assets. They new what the sizes of these tanks were long before this project started.

Today marks two weeks that no work has commenced from ENGENs side. Our contractors have been appointed and paid to work in accordance with ENGENs contractors as set out in the on site meetings. Now we are getting to a point where our contractors need to stop work as they cant continue without ENGENs contractors' work to be finished.

And up until now we just get excuses and no person of authority within ENGEN has contacted us or setup and urgent meeting regarding this matter. Our Lawyers sent an email regarding all the legal department authorizations and what is required yet they have failed to apply for this application before work commenced.

To say this is unacceptable is far beyond an understatement. This project was suppose to take 8 weeks. Now it might take months ( not sure as nobody seems competent enough to communicate anything to us except excuses). We could still have been operational. We asked Mandla and Refilwe both in two meetings leading up to this project if all of their departmental authorizations have been done and both in front of witnesses have stated that all of their environmental applications are in place and they are ready to start. With this they proceeded to cut of my pumps and all electrical connections with work to commence immediately. After they cut the pumps they left site and have yet to comeback to start work. This project is a multi million rand investment from us and our new supplier and we are unable to get back to business. We are unsure if it is out of spitefulness, politics or just plain incompetence.

We need answers