After a three-month-long delay, the construction at the Delta Park School in Victory Park will soon resume.
Ward 117 Councillor Tim Truluck said he met with the Gauteng MEC for infrastructure Development, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza at the school on 18 January to discuss the status report on the project.
This follows termination of the contract with the previous contractor after scaffolding collapsed and injured pupils at the school.
Read previous story: UPDATE: Delta Park contractors axed
“The contractor was responsible and that was one of the reason why they fired him. The new contractor will be appointed soon and finish off the first two blocks which are C and D,” he explained.
He further indicated that there were minor and annoying defects that the new contractor would start rectifying. “Some of the flooring and some of the steps are not right, so the new contractor will rectify those mistakes so children can be allowed into the classrooms,” said Truluck.
He said that by the end of the first term all the minor work would be finished and the whole project would probably end in the middle of the year.
He concluded that the MEC promised that the project would be monitored on a weekly basis.
MEC Mayathula-Khoza said at the meeting that she was disappointed with the conduct of the contractor who did not even bother to contact the parents of the injured pupils.
“Children were injured, complaints of sexual harassment were reported,
and work ethics and a plethora of misdemeanours led us to terminate the
services of the contractor responsible,” she explained.
The department also promised that they would do all in their power to ensure that the families of the injured pupils were compensated accordingly. The sacked contractor filed two urgent court applications in October and December 2015 in an attempt to get reinstated or stop the department from procuring a completion contractor.
However, the court ruled in the department’s favour and it unfortunately led to the delay in the resumption of construction.
The MEC concluded that the temperature in the mobile classrooms provided for primary school section, was said to reach up to 45°C during the height of heat wave and therefore it was necessary to complete construction as soon as possible.
Details: Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development 011 355 5010; Ward 117 Councillor Tim Truluck 083 619 2419.
Related articles:
UPDATE: Delta Park accident to be investigated
UPDATE: Contractors blamed for scaffolding collapse
Children injured when scaffolding collapses at Delta Park School
