The mismanagement of the construction of the Mpumalanga performance centre in Belfast/Emakhazeni has resulted in further delays in the project, which will cost taxpayers millions more.
Even more delays are expected at the centre, which has been under construction for years, in the future. It is situated in the Emakhazeni Local Municipality (Emakhazeni/Belfast, Dullstroom, Entokozweni/Machadodorp, Emgwenya/Waterval Boven).
According to a report that was submitted to the Provincial Legislature on 2 August, all construction at the Mpumalanga High Altitude Training Centre has come to a halt.
The contractor stopped work seeing as payments were being made late, and building materials were either delivered to the site late or not at all.
By October 2021, the provincial Department of Arts, Culture and Sport had already spent more than R144 million on the centre.
After the FF Plus put a lot of pressure on the Department at the end of 2021, the Department instructed that the project must be fast-tracked. But since then, maladministration and community unrest have hampered its progress.
With an oversight visit by the Department and the FF Plus on 19 April, no construction work of any kind had taken place. It was just a vacant plot of land.
When the project will be completed remains unclear seeing as the delays added several more months to the expected finalisation date.
It is unacceptable that taxpayers’ money is squandered in this way. A project that should have benefited the community of Emakhazeni has turned into a bottomless pit that points to serious irregularities in the provincial government.
The party will keep a close eye on how the matter unfolds and if corruption is found on any level, the perpetrators will be brought to book and criminal charges will be lodged.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Werner Weber on FF Plus
