Seven kilometres from Kimberley’s famous Big Hole sits another of the mining city’s record-breaking landmarks: South Africa’s most expensive mental health hospital. City Press reports that with a price tag estimated at R2bn, Kimberley Mental Health Hospital in the Northern Cape has certainly left a big hole in taxpayers’ pockets. Originally budgeted at R290m, costs ballooned as construction dragged on for 13 years.
“A monument of corruption at an unprecedented scale,” is how Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul described the hospital at its official opening on 30 September last year. But, the report says it would appear that the exact extent of cash squandered on the hospital is hard to compute.
The report says despite the magnitude of its impressive exterior, the hospital is still running at less than half of its full capacity. Of the 287 beds available, only 110 patients can be admitted. This, top management says, is because of a lack of funding for staff and medical supplies.
[link url="https://city-press.news24.com/News/sas-most-expensive-mental-health-hospital-cost-r2bn-but-is-half-empty-20200225"]Full City Press report[/link]