A whopping R115m spent on building new hospital wards at Kopanong Hospital in Vereeniging during the pandemic – a project which was never completed – should have been used to fix existing public hospitals, said the DA last week.
In defence, Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko told the DA’s Jack Bloom in the legislature that the project had not been finished because the service provider had been terminated, reports News24.
The original plan in 2020 was to build 300 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients by using alternative building technology, but the project fell way behind schedule and was never completed.
“There was also controversy because the contractor failed to pay subcontractors. Now, the department is ‘reviewing the structure for possible use as office space for the district’,” said Bloom.
He called the project a “monstrous waste of money”, and accused the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID) of “routinely choosing poor contractors, who fail to finish, but still get paid huge amounts of money”.
A total of R2bn released for the Covid-19 pandemic was wasted, including R500m on the abandoned Anglo Ashanti Hospital on the Far West Rand, he added.
GDID’s spokesperson, Victor Moreriane, confirmed the Koponong project had missed the deadline because the main contractor was terminated for poor performance, but said the department had only paid for the work that had been completed.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SIU Covid corruption probes plod on with little action
SIU report reveals massive scale of looting from COVID-relief funds
Gauteng drops costly Ashanti COVID hospital deal