Legal action looms over Mamelodi Magistrates’ Court construction fiasco
- A new magistrates’ court has been under construction in Mamelodi, Tshwane, since 2014.
- But work has been halted intermittently and the site was abandoned in 2023.
- The Department of Public Works says the “construction mafia” is partly responsible for delays.
- R164m has been spent so far.
- A new contractor was to have been appointed last month.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure is to take legal action against Fikile Construction to recover damages incurred in the incomplete R163m Mamelodi Magistrates’ Court construction project.
The department said the company had started construction work on the site in Mamelodi West in 2014. But work was halted intermittently and the site was eventually abandoned.
Spokesperson for the national Department of Public Works Lennox Mabaso said the department had instructed the State Attorney to issue a summons against the contractor. The summons would be served after the award of the new contract so the department could quantify the actual damages incurred, he said.
GroundUp has tried repeatedly to contact Fikile Construction using the email addresses and telephone numbers listed on its website, but without success.
The project was scheduled to be completed in 2016, but, said Mabaso, had been delayed by community unrest and the activities of the “construction mafia”.
“The Mamelodi Magistrates’ Court project faced demands similar to those made by criminal syndicates at construction projects across the country,” said Mabaso.
“These included demands by local sub-contractors, suppliers and both skilled and unskilled labourers to participate in the project on their own terms. These demands also included the imposition of self-determined wage rates as well as the preferential allocation of wage packages and supply contracts. A group of unknown business forums demanded a 30% share of the project. Such actions resulted in frequent work stoppages, strained relations between the contractor and the local community and [caused] significant disruptions to the project’s progress.”
He said the lack of a proper community involvement strategy had also affected the project.
Fikile Construction’s contract was terminated in October 2023 and the department was in the process of appointing another contractor to start this month.
Asked whether the department had blacklisted Fikile Construction, Mabaso said the department had made a submission to the Restriction Committee Secretariat in terms of Treasury regulations and public procurement guidelines. He said if the submission was approved, Fikile Construction would be prevented from participating in public sector tenders for a specific period.
Mabaso said R163,939,686 had been spent on the project.
Mamelodi residents have complained about the existing magistrates’ court in Mamelodi West which they say is too small.
Spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Terrence Manase acknowledged that the existing court is not big enough for the population of Mamelodi, which is about 335,000, according to StatsSA. But, he said, despite space constraints, the court “is fully functional with seven courtrooms currently in operation to provide a wide range of services”.
“There are currently no backlogs of cases reported at Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court,” Manase said.
This article was originally published on GroundUp.
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