NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 1566
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 12 SEPTEMBER 2014
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 16)

Mr H C Volmink (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:

(1) Has the mental health hospital that was under construction in Kimberley in the Northern Cape in 2013 been completed; if not, (a) why not, (b) when will the hospital be completed and (c) on what date will the first patients be admitted;

(2) have any parts of the construction been condemned; if so, what are the (a) relevant details, (b) cost of demolition and (c) cost of repairs to the condemned sections;

(3) (a) what has been the costs of the hospital to date and (b) what are the revised detailed cost estimates for (i) buildings, (ii) services, (iii) plants and (iv) equipment;

(4) what are the details of the motivations and/or reasons of all applications for funding received from the provincial authorities for the construction of the hospital;

(5) has any disciplinary action and/or court action been taken against any persons, including state employees and/or contractors involved in this project; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?           

NW1936E

REPLY:

(1) The Mental Health Hospital is still under construction. The contractor's construction programme is now scheduled for 27 May 2015;

(2) The remedial work was done by the current contractor on the work of the previous contractor. The remedial work came to the value of R24,204,348.00;

(3) To date the contractor has been paid R181,645,611.00. The construction cost is currently estimated at R524,608,305.00. The amount is inclusive of the buildings and plants;

(4) The Northern Cape is in need of a mental health facility and currently the West End Hospital cannot manage to accommodate all the patients in need. One of the challenges experienced by the Department of Health is that the state patients are accommodated by the Correctional Services;

(5) The National Treasury has appointed a team of professionals in the built environment together with the involvement of special investigation unit to investigate whether anything wrong was done on this project from procurement stage and implementation. The investigations will be conducted in three phases and the first report is expected on 20 October 2014.

Issued by Parliament, October 13 2014

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