Johannesburg-based civil engineering company Khato Civils completed the 100km pipeline last month, which will provide water to Botswana’s capital Gaborone and 23 villages.

The Botswana Water Utilities Corporation praised the company for completing the project, which would ordinarily take two years, in 12 months, saving the water utility P1.2 billion (about R1.6 billion).

Ntshambiwa Moathodi, the technical director of Water Utilities, said that similar projects in Botswana would ordinarily take two years to complete for not less than P2 billion.

“You will see in the next two years, we will be delivering similar projects just as cost-effectively. There is no doubt we can bring down the cost of mega water projects,” Moathodi said.

Simbi Phiri, Khato Civils’ chairperson, said the fact that the project was awarded as a turnkey, many engineering variations were avoided and if they were necessary, they did not cost the Botswana government anything.

“We designed the project ourselves, so for any variations, we did not charge government more,” Phiri said.

he project was to provide clean running water to 55 villages in the Mopani District Municipality.

The controversy around the Giyani project is now being probed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which is moving to recover R4.1 billion.

Kaizer Kganyago, the SIU spokesperson, said a civil claim had been instituted in the Polokwane High Court against LTE Consulting, Khato and Lepelle Northern Water Board. LTE subcontracted Khato for the construction of the project.

On the other hand, Khato Civils has approached the courts to be paid what is due to them. Overall, the company is demanding more than R300 million for work done, closing down the site and its retention fee.