Deputy Mayor Nasiphi Moya apologised to the community of Refilwe near Cullinan for the City of Tshwane’s failure to complete construction of the local stadium for a period of 11 years.
“We will have to fight a good fight to complete the stadium and apologise to the community of Refilwe as failure to complete the stadium is uncalled for,” said Moya.
“The people of Refilwe had a facility before and we came and took it away with intention to upgrade it but that failed and now they have been without this facility for 11 years,” explained Moya.
Millions of rand were spent on the construction of the stadium yet it still stands like a white elephant to date.
All that has been built at the stadium is a small grandstand which is incomplete.
Grass and shrubs have grown inside the stadium and the people of Refilwe are complaining that they don’t have anywhere to engage in sporting activities, especially soccer.
“R80 million has already been spent on the incomplete Refilwe Stadium and we must get another R20 million which will be difficult for me as the City has no money and there are competing service delivery priorities,” explained Moya.
Moya said there is no way the City can keep on pumping money into projects and there is no accountability at the end of the day.
“We need to know what happened here at Refilwe Stadium for two reasons, namely, to rectify the past and not repeat the same mistakes,” explained Moya.
She announced that during the recent adjustment budget of the City of Tshwane, money was allocated for professionals to descope work done at the stadium so that the municipality would know exactly how much is needed to complete the stadium.
“I am going to put the case forward for the people of Refilwe at the Mayoral Committee meeting but I am in the hands of my colleagues in this regard,” said Moya.
Moya revealed that the contractor who has failed to complete construction of Refilwe Stadium, is the same contractor who failed to complete construction of the Caledonian Stadium.
The name of the contractor is Mologadi A Nape Construction, which was registered as a company on 11 December 2017.