The multibillion rand Women’s Living Heritage Monument Centre in Pretoria, which was erected six years ago at a cost of more than R200 million, remains partially operating.
This was despite repeated political pressure on the Gauteng provincial government to offer the facilities in Sammy Marks Square to the public.
The project began in 2012 and was set to be completed in 2015.
It was officially unveiled in August 2016, although construction was completed two years later.
The center was founded with the goal of highlighting the contributions of women to the history of the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa and Africa.
As part of its Heritage Month campaign, the DA paid an overnight visit to the institution on Wednesday to examine the heritage site and establish whether structural flaws had been addressed.
The City of Tshwane earlier stated that it had not awarded an occupancy certificate for the centre due to outstanding compliance issues with fire safety regulations and non-functioning lifts, among other things.
Kingsol Chabalala, DA Gauteng’s shadow MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture, and Recreation, expressed dissatisfaction that the monument is still not fully operating.
“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 told journalists.
He did, however, say that the party found solace in the fact that when they arrived at the monument on Wednesday, there were contractors on hand to fix on structural issues noted 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,” according to him.
Chabalala stated that according to MEC Matome Chiloane, the facility should be operational by the end of October this year.
“When we raised this issue in the House in the first week of September, he said the monument would be operational by the end of October.” So, by the end of October, we’ll return to the monument to verify if it’s still operating,” he explained.
He bemoaned that the Gauteng government had spent more than R200 million on the monument’s construction and R80 million on attempting to make it operational.
“What we will also check is the amount that has been spent in terms of addressing those issues raised by the City of Tshwane,” according to him.
