A R94 million project in Mamelodi, Pretoria has grounded to a halt for twelve years after local construction mafias started to demand a share of building proceeds.
The project was started in 2009 and should have been completed by 2016, changing the landscape of Mamelodi township.
However, 12 years later, the project is in ruins and halfway through after the local construction mafias operating around Pretoria in Gauteng violently stopped it.
The assigned contractor, fearing for its staff's safety, pulled out of the site and left it to rot away.
The project is meant to house a judiciary complex for Mamelodi, bringing the high court, the magistrate court and the family court under one roof.
PICTURE: This is the stalled R94 million Mamelodi Magistrate Court Project due to violent disruptions by construction mafias of Pretoria. The building is meant to house the High Court, Regional Court and the Family Court Centre. The project was started in 2009. @IOL pic.twitter.com/jh75mB6VO3
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) August 3, 2023
On Thursday the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala visited the project as part of kick-starting all stalled public works projects across the country.
Zikalala promised that they would ensure that the Mamelodi project and many others across the country would be restarted.
“This unfinished R94,7 million Mamelodi Magistrate Court in Gauteng has been stalled for almost a decade. We are here to ensure that all stalled projects are swiftly unblocked, completed and ready to be of service to the people of South Africa,” Zikalala said at the site.
The Mamelodi project which was being undertaken by Fikile Construction is now an eyesore.
There is overgrown grass around it and the fence is now falling apart.
Some of the material that was brought to be used like concrete pipes are rotting away and the windows of the building are cracking.
Some of the walls of the building were half-painted and later abandoned, and the water pipe work around it has been stripped, allegedly by metal scrap dealers.
Other projects Zikalala has visited after they were disrupted by construction mafias include the Durban High Court which is being renovated after months-long delays.
The project was stopped by a construction mafia based in Umlazi in the south of Durban, demanding a share like the Mamelodi mafia.
IOL Politics