City of Tshwane spends R60k a day on abandoned business park
They are contractually obligated to pay the amount despite the project currently being paused.
DA Gauteng premier candidate, Solly Msimanga briefs media about his decision to step down as Tshwane mayor at the DA headquarters in Bruma, Johannesburg, 18 January 2019. Picture: Neil McCartney
The stoppage of work on a R525 million Business Processing Outsourcing park (BPO) in Hammanskraal under the watch of Solly Msimanga has resulted in the city of Tshwane spending R60,000 on the now abandoned park.
Pretoria News reports that the project was launched in 2016 under an ANC administration with the aim of creating 3,000 jobs through on-site training, technical support, and incubators for small and medium micro enterprises.
According to Msimanga, construction stalled after a Tshwane-based group of business people demanded work during the construction phase.
The city’s MMC for economic development and spatial planning, Izak Pietersen, attributed the problem to the nature of litigation between the city and the project’s previous contractor.
“We need to negotiate and make sure we settle that because the aim of the executive mayor is to unlock it and make sure the project runs so that the community can benefit out of it,” explained Pietersen.
Despite the dispute, the city is contractually obligated to pay the contractor R60,000 a day but Pietersen did not disclose what this amount was for.
The city’s mayor said that he had raised the issue of the business park with David Makhura and was currently awaiting a “comprehensive” report about the project which is scheduled to be delivered this week.
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