Call for 'full transparency' over R280m Women's Living Heritage Monument construction delays

“Taxpayers deserve full transparency on how R280 million has been spent on a project that remains closed, unfinished, and shrouded in secrecy.”

DA MP Leah Potgieter said this on Tuesday after her party’s oversight entourage was denied access to the Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Pretoria, which remains closed more than a decade after it was announced.

“During the unannounced oversight visit by myself as DA Spokesperson on Sport, Arts and Culture, the Portfolio Chairperson Joe McGluwa MP and DA Gauteng MPL Leanne De Jager officials on site claimed that prior permission from the project manager was required. The project manager later confirmed telephonically that he did not recognise the right of Members of Parliament to conduct unannounced oversight visits,” Potgieter said in a statement.

She said despite claims that “work is still ongoing” at the centre, there was no evidence of active construction, no workers in protective clothing, machinery, materials, or visible progress.

“Officials blamed the City of Tshwane for not issuing an occupancy certificate, citing 'updated fire regulations since 2014', an excuse that rings hollow after a decade of delays and over R280 million spent," she said.

She said last week’s visit marked the eighth time she and her oversight group had been denied entry to the centre that was launched on August 9, 2012, to honour the legacy of women in the struggle against apartheid.

'R280m and climbing'

She said taxpayers deserve full transparency about the state of the centre, the construction problems and delays that have plagued it despite "R280 million and climbing" having been spent on it.

“The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to request a full investigation into possible financial mismanagement and tender manipulation at the Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Pretoria,” she said.

She said they will also request that the Chairperson of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture Portfolio Committee summon officials to account for ongoing delays, escalating costs and the lack of transparency surrounding this project.

“Even Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, the last surviving leader of the 1956 Women’s March, has publicly lamented that a monument meant to honour South Africa’s women has instead become a symbol of government failure,” said Potgieter.

Her party paid the centre a visit as part of its Heritage Month campaign.

The centre has as part of its key features statues commemorating legendary activists Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Williams'De Bruyn. The four were part of the more than 20,000 women that marched to the Union Buildings in 1956.