Decades to rebuild Joburg’s metro centre is ‘sinister’

It is not surprising that the people trying to run Johannesburg predict that it will take between five and 10 years to rebuild the city’s metro centre… a building which took only four years to build in the 1970s.

The centre has been out of commission since a fire in its electrical transformers earlier this year forced the evacuation of offices and the relocation of thousands of staffers.

The renovation and reconstruction of the centre will cost around R2 billion, according to officials, and will take such a long time because this is a complex operation.

A civil engineer we spoke to described the time frame as ridiculous. And he’s correct.

In China, it took just over four years to build the world’s biggest airport – at Daxing outside Beijing – which has a terminal area 10 times the size of the Joburg metro centre.

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Mind you, our comrades in Brics are known for their productivity as well as for executing people involved in corruption… We agree with the Democratic Alliance, which feels there is “something sinister” in the plan for the centre.

The longer the building is out of operation, the more the ANC politicians and their sidekicks in the council can “eat” from the contracts for temporary accommodation. Similarly, the longer the renovation process takes, the more time there is at the ratepayer trough.

The municipal apparatchiks, who already spend huge amounts on feeding and watering city councillors during official sittings, believe they can also convince some private companies to enter into a partnership with the city to do the reconstruction.

This supposes the civic centre can be turned into a vast shopping mall and accommodation precinct.

This scheme shows our governments – at all tiers – think public money is theirs to squander and their “firepool” explanations show the contempt in which they hold taxpayers.

ALSO READ: Faulty transformers lead to closure of Joburg Metro Centre