R115m wasted in abandoned Covid hospital project

Three years later, hospital wards at Koponong Hospital in Vereeniging, built at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and meant to aid covid patients, remain incomplete at a costly R115million. This was revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko in a written reply to the DA’s Jack Bloom’s questions in Legislature.

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UNFINISHED WARDS COULD BE TURNED INTO OFFICES

In order to have the 300 ICU bed unit ready as soon as possible, the plan was to use Alternative Building Technology (ABT), however the plan fell far behind schedule and it was never used.

According to the MEC, the wards are all incomplete because the appointed service provider was unable to finish the project and their contract was terminated. Nkomo-Ralehoko also reveals that the contractor failed to pay subcontractors.

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“This project has been a monstrous waste of money that should have been used to fix existing public hospitals”, says Bloom.

DA CALLS INFRASTRUCTURE DEPARTMENT INCOMPETENT

“It’s yet another example of gross incompetence by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID) which routinely chooses poor contractors who fail to finish but still get paid huge amounts of money” he adds.

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The DA says nearly R2 billion in total was wasted of money released for the Covid-19 pandemic, including R500 million on the abandoned Anglo Ashanti Hospital on the Far West Rand.

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