Honey, They Smoked The City Hall

Explosive report exposes corruption, incompetence – and bad taste – in refurbishment of capital’s municipal HQ. 

- Susan Puren

AN EXPLOSIVE REPORT FINGERING for fraud and corruption was former Tshwane mayor Sputla Ramokgopa’s Chief of Staff shelved a year ago by the city’s previous municipal manager, Jason Ngobeni. Ngobeni resigned when the DA took over the administration of the capital after the August local government elections.

The forensic report is one of several that have been retrieved from oblivion by the DA administration. Compiled by Fundudzi Forensic Services, the 247-page document recommended that criminal charges be laid against Ernest Shozi and other high-ranking former officials, as well as the companies they appointed to refurbish the mayor’s official residence and the Pretoria City Hall. The then ANC-controlled council ignored the recommendation.

The City Hall project escalated from R12 million to R138m in less than a year and by the time the contractors were kicked off the site last year, R90m had already been paid out on the illconceived project. Left behind is a mess of rubble, and walls covered in psychedelic wallpaper and op-art tiles, “suitable only for a rent-by-the-hour hotel or a dominatrix torture room”.

It was not an upgrade it was a downgrade, says Councillor Randall Williams, the MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning in Tshwane. “I think it is an absolute national disgrace that something so dear to the city could be destroyed because of greed.”