NELSPRUIT – Nearly three months after construction on the High Court was supposed to begin, the builders are on site. The Mpumalanga High Court will be located in West Acres on Samora Machel Drive behind the Engen fuel station and FET College.
Permission has also been obtained from the town planners for an access road to the court to be constructed from Samora Machel Drive, better known as the N4. To date, only this one access road has been approved. Another one is planned to run from behind the two-building construction, which will consist of the court house and a building for administration and offices. The second road’s route has not yet been approved.
This was made known to residents at a presentation held by the contractors, Group Five, at the Mbombela Council Chambers on Wednesday evening. According to Mr Jacques Terblanche, the principal architect of the court complex and the man who led the presentation, the college suggested that the access road should not cut across its property to Koraalboom Street as this would divide its campus into two parts.
Instead, it suggested that the second access road run straight to connect to the Kaapsehoop Road, opposite Tarentaal Centre. The road’s location would have to be approved by the city council and the college.
Terblanche confirms that the five-storey court is estimated to cost the National Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport approximately R800 million and that, if all goes according to plan, the complex will be completed in the stipulated 24 months. There will be five criminal court rooms and six for civil cases.
Judging by the concerns raised by most of the handful of residents who attended, they live in the area directly adjacent to the construction site. The much-dreaded blasting of the rocky terrain of the site had already started. Mr Cobus Laysberg, the contract’s manager of the project, explained that the final of the four main blasts would occur on Friday at 15:00, while the remaining ones would be minor.
According to Ms Felicity Lange, DA councillor of the affected ward, residents had been concerned about possible damage any blasting might inflict on
their properties, but their fears were assuaged by Laysberg’s assurances of the safety of the procedures and the precautions taken.
Other concerns centred on the retaining wall between the court and residential houses located behind it (it is to be erected in consultation with residents) as well as the labourers who would be employed. Laysberg estimated that there would be about 800 people working on site as of January.
