Contractors for multi-million rand Gauteng school say repeated robberies reason for project delays
The state-of-the-art Simunye Secondary School in Bekkersdal faces a difficult race against time to open just before the start of the academic calendar next year.
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JOHANNESBURG - Contractors responsible for a delayed multi-million rand Gauteng school have cited repeated armed robberies for the missed deadlines.
The state-of-the-art Simunye Secondary School in Bekkersdal faces a difficult race against time to open just before the start of the academic calendar next year.
The school was one of several sites visited by members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Wednesday, who were conducting oversight on incomplete infrastructure projects in Gauteng.
READ: NCOP calls on Gauteng govt to recoup public money from underperforming contractors
Construction of the R123 million school started in 2022, with the aim that it would accommodate 1,200 pupils by 2025.
However, the school is running behind schedule with the contractors having already missed two deadlines so far.
One of the contractors told the NCOP members they were spending about R100,000 a month on security due to the site being targeted by armed robbers.
“We have had deaths on this site, our security guards have been killed while on duty, we have had a number of robberies on site that have been reported to SAPS [South African Police Service]. We actually had one of the biggest robberies when they took all our equipment out through an organised system – where guys came with an AK47 at midnight.”
The NCOP members have made a request for the case numbers of the alleged robberies to follow up with the police.