Queries on court tender after shoddy job

When the comrades are at the trough eating, there is little time for niceties – such as ensuring that the massive tender they won will be fulfilled properly.

Yet, even knowing that, it is almost beyond comprehension that the government could spend R1.1 billion on a new court building in Mbombela which, from the time it was opened in 2019, failed to meet the most basic occupational health and safety standards.

Even before the building opened, the Mbombela municipality warned that it was noncompliant in terms of safety and urged that corrections be made.

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Five years later, the departments of justice and labour are now at each other’s throats, following a decision by the latter to declare the building unfit for habitation and order it to be vacated.

The Public Servants Association, which represents government employees who work at that court, say bad design and lack of maintenance means people are put at risk from leaking water, including sewage, from upper floors.

There are not enough windows to provide fresh air and there is no access for disabled people.

The flaws must be rectified – if that is possible – but there needs to be an answer to this basic question: How could this happen?

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