Ekurhuleni municipal building's R46m budget skyrockets beyond R300m
The project launched in 2017 with a completion date set for 2021 still needs an additional R39m to complete. The plan was to ease severe office space shortages for the municipality but the project has turned into a drawn-out financial nightmare.
When Sowetan visited the SAAME building this week, there was no contractor on site. Rubble surrounded the 10-storey structure, unused building materials including cement lay scattered around and there was no sign of any ongoing work. The building remains barricaded with only security guards stationed at the premises.
A 71-page forensic report tabled in council in March 2025 outlined a damning paper trail of irregularities, inflated prices for material which cost the city more than R136m and defective workmanship for which the municipality had to fork out R4.8m. The council also lost R70m to unauthorised payments to some of the contractors. The total financial value of these irregularities amounted to R272m.
The investigation into the refurbishment of the building was requested by the city manager after noticing 'potential red flags and substandard service from contractors'.
According to the report, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) was hired to manage the project and was paid more than R8.1m. Themane Management Consultants (TMC) was paid more than R163m, while Anita Building Construction, which later renamed itself FM Infrastructure, was paid R94.1m.
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IOL News
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The Citizen
25-07-2025
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Parliament fire: Over R500m already spent as restoration project now expected to cost R4.4bn
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The reconstruction is expected to be completed in late 2026 following delays that have extended the original deadline. Zandile Mafe, who admitted to starting the fire and was charged with terrorism and arson, was declared unfit to stand trial in December 2023. Parliament fire: Restoration progress Chuene Ramphele, DBSA group executive for infrastructure delivery, said during the meeting that work was initially stalled as the parliamentary site was treated as a crime scene and secured by police. 'Technically, the work actually started in March 2023,' he told the joint committee. Ramphele said that significant progress had been made since work officially began, including the construction of 155 offices for MPs on Plein Street. 'At this stage, our focus is primarily on the refurbishment,' he said. ALSO READ: Macpherson accused of being 'weak' after saying he's being sidelined over Parliament fire He said that demolition works were completed in March 2024 and came in under budget at R73 million, saving R2 million in the process. Due to design changes and necessary statutory approvals, the initial R2 billion budget had risen. 'When we concluded the detailed designs, you'll see that we started to be very sure of what are the detailed costs,' Ramphele said. 'After the final approval and the designs, the budget for both the refurbishment of the National Assembly and Old Assembly buildings amounted to R3.6 billion.' Watch the meeting below: Ramphele also said the DBSA is applying a risk-monitoring approach to minimise the impact of unforeseen challenges, such as bad weather, given the tight timeline. The revised total budget includes R900 million allocated for upgrading the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure. 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