There is still no completion date for Johannesburg’s new forensic pathology lab, which remains an empty shell while the current facility – the condemned Braamfontein/Hillbrow mortuary, where blood seeps on to floors and rats reportedly chew on corpses – has been “temporary” since 1999, reports News24.
Eight missed deadlines, more than R700m already spent, and six years after it was first supposed to open, the city’s Forensic Pathology Services (FPS) lab at Helen Joseph Hospital is still unfinished, and the responsible department still cannot say when that will change.
Meanwhile, staff at the Braamfontein FPS have worked in the condemned and stinking old building for more 26 years, with no apparent end in sight.
The current facility is not fit for purpose, yet it remains the busiest mortuary in the country. It was supposed to be temporary, but has remained open since 1999, after it was moved from the Constitution Hill precinct when the apex court was established to make way for parking.
The former hospital does not meet the specifications for proper operation; the ventilation often fails, and the same is true of the cold storage rooms.
The facility was originally meant to open in 2019, but Covid and payment issues got in the way. The date was moved to May 2022, then January 2023, then December 2025. The latest deadline was September 2026, which has now also been missed.
The new facility was supposedly going to be the solution to the backlog in DNA tests.
While it’s owned and paid for by the Gauteng Department of Health, the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development is responsible for its construction.
On 8 September, Gauteng Infrastructure Development and Cogta MEC Jacob Mamabolo said he could not “thumb-suck a date” because the department had to “revise the plan with the contractor”.
This was in response to questions posed by Madeleine Hicklin, DA spokesperson on health in the Gauteng legislature.
Hicklin asked the MEC what had happened since he had promised to conduct an independent investigation into the delays in opening the new lab. She asked if the investigation had been conducted, what the findings were, why the lab had not been opened, the final cost of the project, and when it would be opened.
Mamabolo said an investigation “had been commissioned, but due to the complexity of the work”, it was still under way. Part of the complexity was that the work had been ongoing for so long.
“We are still working on it… and the process is definitely still ongoing.”
He blamed part of the delay to the turnover of service providers, with some having been terminated, while others had not done the job correctly.
“But also, we know that there was a time when we couldn’t have a proper relationship with the Department of Health, and there was no money set aside to take this project forward,” he said, adding that “good work had been done”.
The MEC said the final cost of the project could only be calculated once the project was complete and reconciliations could be done.
“If there was over-costing, over-payments, under-payments – the reconciliations will have to be done and monies due to contractors, to PSPs (payment service providers) and monies due to us… So the final account is the main reconciliation, and until it is done, we can’t say what the project has cost,” he added.
Mamabolo said Phase 1 was about to be completed. After that, it would take around 10 weeks to complete internal fittings, tenant installations, and a temporary or permanent occupation certificate from the City of Johannesburg.
“We’re waiting for the contractor to finalise the first phase, and then we can start procurement for the next phase, which we hope will move quickly. So, at this point, I wouldn’t want to thumb-suck a date because we are at the end, and we will continue to revise the plan with the contractor.”
He said the “A team, the professionals”, were on site and that oversight had been strengthened to ensure the project was completed.
‘More to hide than they want to admit’
Last week, contractor Maziya General Services chief operating officer Lucky Qotoyi said the company had successfully completed its scope of work at the end of August.
“We are currently testing and commissioning works,” he said, but added that the company was still owed more than R50m, and “the final amount owed will only be known after the final account has been concluded”.
Hicklin said the cost of the lab had ballooned from R588m to R703m, and meanwhile, she was receiving at least two or three calls a week for desperate people awaiting post-mortem results.
“And there’s nothing I can do because we have so many delays relating to this lab.”
She’d also received a complaint from a family whose loved one had rats chew on their cheek.
“It’s the blood on the floor that attracts them,” she said, adding that she did not blame the dedicated staff who worked at the lab.
Employees were working long hours in an abusive system which was not up to code, and while the health department blamed the National Health Laboratory Services, “the NHLS don’t do autopsies”.
She had tried to inspect the Braamfontein mortuary in November 2025, but wasn’t allowed into the building, despite being mandated to perform inspections. “I was told they had more to hide than they want to admit.”
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Gauteng Health ‘crippling forensic pathology services’
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