The multimillion-rand the Women’s Living Heritage Monument Centre in Pretoria, which was completed six years ago at a cost of more than R200 million, is still not fully operational.
This was despite constant political pressure on the Gauteng provincial government to open the facility located at Sammy Marks Square for the public.
The project was initiated in 2012 and was to be completed in 2015.
It was officially unveiled in August 2016 but construction was only completed two years later.
The centre was established with the objective of showcasing the roles of women in the history of the Struggle for liberation in Southern Africa and Africa.
On Wednesday, the DA conducted an overnight visit at the facility as part of its Heritage Month campaign to reassess the heritage site and determine if its structural faults have been fixed.
The City of Tshwane previously cited that it has not issued an occupancy certificate for the centre due to outstanding compliance issues related to fire safety requirements and lifts that were not working, among other things.
DA Gauteng shadow MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Kingsol Chabalala, expressed disappointment that the monument was still not fully operational.
“We are concerned and disappointed by the fact that the Gauteng provincial government and especially the department of sports, arts, culture and recreation failed to use this monument to leverage economic opportunities through tourism, which would have had economic benefits in terms of job creation and supporting small businesses,” he said.
He, however, said the party found solace in the fact that during the arrival at the monument on Wednesday there were contractors on site to work on structural issues raised by the municipality.
“We hope that this time it won’t be like the previous times whether contractors received money but after their work the facility was not operational,”he said.
Chabalala said according to the MEC Matome Chiloane the facility should be up and running before the end of October this year.
“When we raised this issue in the House in the first week of September he indicated that by the end of October the monument will be operational. So, at the end of October we will once again visit the monument to see if it is operational,”he said.
He lamented the fact that the Gauteng government has, so far, spent more than 200m in the construction of the monument and R80m in trying to operationalise it.
“What we will also check is the amount that has been spent in terms of addressing those issues raised by the City of Tshwane,”he said.
Pretoria News
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