10-07-2025
Ekurhuleni municipal building's R46m budget skyrockets beyond R300m
After eight years, five contractors and more than R300m paid to the City of Ekurhuleni to renovate a municipal building, the structure in Germiston remains unfinished.
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.
