Construction at Westdene Recreational Centre paused
WESTDENE – Time or money, why was the recreational centre's upgrade put on hold?
Resident’s association criticises the work done during the failed recreational centre upgrade.
At the beginning of this year, the renewal project for the Westdene Recreational Centre was launched. At that time, the initial construction and refurbishment of the centre rendered it unusable. Fast-forward to August and construction has come to a standstill due to work not being completed on time.
Stakeholder manager for the office of Community Development at the City of Johannesburg, Karabo Tledima, said the project came to a halt as the contractor who was appointed for the Westdene Centre planned maintenance project did not finish the work by the due date.
The Westdene-Sophiatown Residents Association (WSRA) is concerned about the issues facing the centre. Chairperson Dauw Steyn said the WSRA visited the site every two weeks to inspect the work being done and they were appalled by the sub-standard work being delivered.
He said, “Construction stopped around June 2019 when the original appointed contractor was let go due to running out of funds and absolute bad workmanship.”
To their knowledge, the contractor was released from the project.
Another issue that bothered the association is the fact that the crèche that shares the premises with the centre continued to operate even though the site was a construction site. “The crèche was open all this time and children were in-between this dust and workers. The crèche is also operating in an asbestos building,” Steyn said.
According to him, these and other issues were shared with the office of Community Development, yet, nothing happened to address this.
WSRA would like to see the matter resolved soonest. Steyn said, “A new contractor must be appointed immediately to finish the project so the community at large can use the facilities again. Of priority should be the fence around the recreation centre that must be replaced as per the original plan to stop theft and vandalism.”
Tledima said, “These contractors were appointed by the City’s entity, the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC). They terminated the contractor’s contract on effluxion of time and are in the process of appointing new ones to complete the work.”
He indicated that this process can take up to six months but the completion of the project is expected for no later than 31 March 2020.
This is a developing story.
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