DA questions unfinished stadium

Orlando Chauke

LIMPOPO – THE DA in Giyani plans to approach the Hawks to investigate the delays in the building of the state-of-the-art stadium currently being built at Homu village.

When complete, the stadium will also have facilities such as ablution blocks, changing rooms and other features that have not previously been seen in these rural villages.

According to DA Giyani councillor, Hasani Shibambu, who recently wrote to the Greater Giyani Municipality seeking clarity on a number of issues leading to the delay in the construction of the project, the stadium should have been completed by November last year.

“What puzzles me is that up to now the construction has not been finished, and has stopped altogether,” Shibambu said, adding that he had visited the construction site about three or four times and there was no activity. “One of my sources who worked there told me that the construction might need some extra funds to finish it up. The question is, how does that happen when there was a budget allocated for the completion of the whole project?” he questioned. Shibambu’s letter to the municipality requested an explanation about the delay. It also requested the contact details of the contractor with the aim of finding out why the construction had stopped.

Municipal spokesperson, Steve Mavunda, disputed that the construction had stopped. “As far as I know the work is still continuing on the site,” he said, adding that the municipality had received Shibambu’s letter and had referred it to the office of the municipal public accounts committee for investigation.

He further said that as Shibambu was a member of the infrastructure development portfolio committee that oversaw the construction of projects, some of the issues he had raised in his letter could have been addressed better by the portfolio committee.

Shibambu responded that it was not easy for him to sway the committee, which largely consisted of ANC members. “They won’t listen to you unless you’re one of them,” Shibambu alleged, adding that the DA would approach the Hawks to investigate the matter.

“The municipality does not seem willing to take responsibility over what is happening with that project. Judging by the tone of their response letter, you can clearly see they are shifting this to a personal attack on me rather than dealing specifically with the issues that I raised in my letter.”