Pretoria - The non-operational Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Pretoria remains an unpleasant dent in the celebrations of Women's Month every August because of shoddy workmanship.
This is according to Gauteng DA shadow MEC for sports, arts, culture and recreation Kingsol Chabalala, who visited the facility after six years since its construction was completed and more than R200 million was spent.
The Women’s Living Heritage Monument was erected to honour and commemorate women who played a pivotal role in the Struggle against apartheid. It was initiated in 2012 and was meant to be completed in 2015.
The state-of-the-art monument was completed in 2018 and almost R80m has been spent on getting this facility operational. However, the monument continues to be non-operational due to shoddy work.
Chabalala conducted an oversight inspection at the monument and was shocked to discover that the roof was leaking, the lifts and fire hydrants were not working.
“The internal offices meant for the City of Tshwane are small and are not a conducive working environment. Furthermore, we discovered that the statues of our nation's female heroines were hidden in the kitchen and are not being used to teach the youth and tourists about our history.
“This monument is not serving its purpose and it's high time that the MEC of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation Mbali Hlophe fix the shoddy work which is hindering this building from getting its occupational certificate.
“We demand the MEC Hlophe prioritises fixing the shoddy work and ensures that an occupational certificate is obtained as soon as possible. This monument has huge potential to grow the local economy and create employment opportunities in the tourism sector,” said Chabalala.
He said there was nothing to celebrate for the residents of Gauteng this Women’s Month since the monument was still not being fully utilised.
“We can no longer sit and watch a building of this magnitude left to waste. The DA will assess why this facility is still not fully operational and what needs to be done for it to be fully utilised,” he said.
By the time of publication the department had not responded to a request for comment.
Pretoria News