The R67 million project to refurbish Caledonian Stadium in Arcadia is set to cost the City of Tshwane at least 10% more than it was initially budgeted for when it was first announced in 2017 by former mayor Solly Msimanga.
The MMC for Social Development and Community Service, Peggy de Bruin, said additional costs would be incurred after the contractor failed to complete the construction work on time.
She was reacting to the EFF’s accusations that she lied when she said last year that the stadium project was on the right track while it had stalled.
The regional EFF in Tshwane claimed the MMC indicated that the project was scheduled for completion in the 2022/23 financial year.
This was despite that the project site was littered with heaps of sand, with weeds and debris, bearing a testament that it had long been abandoned.
In 2017, Msimanga announced that the City had set aside R67m to refurbish the 1930 stadium, promising that the project would be completed in three years.
Asked if she publicly lied about the deadlines for finishing the project, De Bruin said: “The planned project completion date for the Caledonian Stadium was indicated as May 21, 2024, from the start as the project commenced in June 2021 with a 36-month or three-year construction period.”
She said the information on the stadium project was communicated through the Section 79 committee overseeing her department’s work on a monthly basis.
According to her, the City terminated the service provider’s contract owing to poor performance over the first 24 months.
The contractor, she said, achieved only 25% progress after 24 months whereas the agreed progress was supposed to be 65%.
“The contractor continuously did not pay the subcontracts and local labour on time, and only an average of 1% to 3% was achieved on a monthly basis. Several interventions were discussed with the contractor without any success. It needs to be mentioned that the contractor had a construction industry development board grading of eight which indicates that they are supposed to have financial capacity with cash flow available in the order of R8 million per month. A bank reference letter was submitted by the contractor to this effect,” she said.
De Bruin said the contractor’s value of the average monthly payment towards the end of the contract rarely exceeded R 500 000 whereas the average monthly payment was supposed to be R 3 000 000.
The EFF has called on her to give an account of the refurbishment project or resign with immediate effect should she fail to do so.
De Bruin said: “As the MMC, I have been regularly accounting by conducting site visits, submitting progress reports through the appropriate platforms within the City, including the Section 79 oversight committee (of which EFF members are part thereof) as well as the revenue and performance committee.”
She said the draft tender for outstanding work was in place and the closeout process of the previous contract was almost complete.
Her department, she said, had been in discussion with the MMC for Finance and other stakeholders to try and secure funds to advertise the said tender after the approval of the adjustment budget.
“If funds do become available, construction can commence in July 2024 with completion after 24 months,” she said.
Asked whether the City would incur additional costs than the R67m previously budgeted for the project, she said: “The rates for the contract was tendered for and approved in 2019, and therefore it needs to be escalated by approximately 10% per annum to appoint a new services provider to complete the project. The budget required for completion will as a result increase.”
She said the final cost of project completion cannot be accurately determined “because it will be market related based on the open tender process of the city”.
Pretoria News