Mental hospital becoming monument of corruption
3 April 2014
The Democratic Alliance is deeply concerned by reported further delays in the completion of the Kimberley Mental Hospital, which is only 35% complete despite having been under construction for nine years.
It came to light during a recent legislature committee meeting with Provincial Treasury that, due to a failure on the part of the Northern Cape departments of Health and Education, the infrastructure money intended for these departments has now been placed in a pool of unused funds. As a result, both departments will now have to bid for these allocations in order to undertake any new projects.
The likelihood therefore exists that these departments may well lose out on this money. In other words, funding to complete the already exorbitantly priced mental hospital could well dry up, leaving the colossal structure standing incomplete.
The due date keeps getting moved forward, and now we have been told that it will take at least another three years to complete the facility. Already the costs have run over R1 billion. How much more must taxpayers fork out for this structure?