Inside the Women's Living Heritage Monument in the heart of the capital city. File Jacques Naude / Independent Newspapers
Gauteng residents are likely to face further delays in benefiting from the Women's Living Heritage Monument at Sammy Marks Square in the City of Tshwane, valued at over R280 million.
The delays were despite a promise by MEC for Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Matome Chiloane that the centre would be fully operational by the end of this month.
At the time of going to print the department was yet to confirm if plans to open the centre this month were still on track.
However, the DA MPL in Gauteng, Leanne De Jager, said yesterday that the project manager has asked for an extension to complete outstanding work at the centre.
The contractor was yet to attend to non-compliant fire safety systems, roof leaks, and poor plumbing.
She said: “In an oversight meeting in September as an MPL and an NCOP oversight meeting the next day, the project manager stated that the facility would be opened before the end of October.”
However, Chiloane in a response to a written question in the House last week, said the facility had requested an additional R12 million, according to De Jager.
She said Chiloane said the opening would therefore take place after the end of October, “which is a direct contradiction of what was said in oversight meetings in September”.
“The reason for the follow up meeting was to establish whether the facility was in any state to be open by the end of October,” she said.
De Jager and her DA team visited the facility this week to conduct an oversight inspection.
She cried foul that she was denied access together with a DA team due to ongoing construction and the lack of PPE equipment “despite there being no construction on the outside of the building”.
“A further follow-up visit will, therefore, have to be undertaken. More alarming is the fact that signs of paint peeling on walls are already taking place on a building which has still not been used,” she said.
The visit came just a month after the party had been to the centre, bemoaning that it was still not fully operational despite that it was completed six years ago.
Initiated in 2012 and was to be completed in 2015, the centre was established with the objective of showcasing the roles of women in the history of the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa and Africa.
Previously, the City cited that it has not issued an occupancy certificate for the centre due to outstanding compliance issues related to fire safety requirements and lifts that were not working, among other things.
De Jager said: “The failure to make this monument, which honours the contributions of South African women in the struggle against apartheid, fully operational is both shameful and disappointing. There is no justification for denying South Africans and our valuable tourism industry the opportunity to celebrate the heritage that has made 30 years of democracy possible.”
Pretoria News
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