FIKILE CONSTRUCTION FIRED AS CONTRACTOR OF ILL-FATED MAMELODI EAST MAGISTRATE’S COURT

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By Peter Mothiba

Signboard of Fikile Construction that was installed in 2013 when the building of the court started photo by Peter Mothiba
Signboard of Fikile Construction that was installed in 2013 when the building of the court started photo by Peter Mothiba

Fikile Construction has been fired as contractor of the ill-fated Mamelodi East Magistrate’s Court.

This was revealed in a letter sent to Tshwane Talks on 19 July 2024 by Director of Media Relations in the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure Thami Mchunu.

“The department is in the process of appointing a contractor to complete the project after the termination of the services of initially-appointed contractor Fikile Construction,” said Mchunu in the aforesaid email.

The reason for the termination of Fikile Construction’s contract is poor performance by the company, according to Mchunu.

Fikile Construction started working on building the Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court way back in 2013 and the last time any tangible work was performed at the construction site was in 2014.

Construction of the court building had been scheduled to be completed in 2015 but now 11 years after work started on the ill-fated project, the unfinished court building stands like the proverbial white elephant on Tsamaya Road, Mamelodi East opposite the Eerstefabrieke railway station.

Presently the ever-growing population of Mamelodi is served by one Magistrate’s Court because the Mamelodi East police station doesn’t have a magistrate’s court like the Mamelodi West police station which is situated right next to the Magistrates Court in Mamelodi West.

In a letter dated 14 July 2023 by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and which was sent to Fikile Construction, the construction company was ordered to resume work on the Magistrate’s Court after a ten-year-long work stoppage but refused to do so.

Fikile Construction’s CEO Hlami Ndlovu responded at the time that contractual issues between her and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure were the reason her company would not resume work at the court.

Fikile Construction has already used R118 million on the unfinished court building and it is not known how much more money will be needed to complete construction of the court building by the new contractor

But delay in completing the Magistrate’s Court also lies in the hands of the infamous Boko Haram bandits, who persecuted contractor Hlami Ndlovu in pursuit of a 30% share in the project.

As Ndlovu was not prepared to give the bandits the 30% share that they demanded, the bandits disrupted work there in July 2014 and up to now there hasn’t been any tangible progress towards completing the court building.

Completion of construction of the court building has apparently been a hot potato for successive Ministers of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure since 2014.

The entrance of the unfinished Mamelodi East Magistrates Court photo by Peter Mothiba
The entrance of the unfinished Mamelodi East Magistrates Court photo by Peter Mothiba

This as none of them has managed to make headway in completing the said construction work.

The following is a list of all successive government Ministers of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure under whose watch the delay took place: 1. Thulas Nxesi- 2014.

2. Nathi Nhleko- 2014 to 2017.

3.Thulas Nxesi again – 2018 to 2019.

4. Patricia De Lille – 2019 to 2023.

5. Sihle Zikalala- 2023 to June 2024.

After visiting the dormant court building in 2023 as part of his “Siyahlola” initiative, the then newly-appointed Minister Zikalala promised to move the proverbial mountains to make sure that the construction of the court gets completed, but to date there’s nothing to write home about regarding progress at the court building.

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