Cost of Jabulani hospital soars to R1bn

Costs for the construction of the new Zola-Jabulani District Hospital in Soweto have escalated from R336 million to almost R1 billion - as authorities continue to shift completion dates. On Tuesday, Gauteng Health Department chief financial officer Ndoda Biyela said he hoped the hospital would be open by the end of October. However, the date was not cast in stone. “We will open once we are ready. We are wary to say the end of October because there might be factors we may not control,” said Biyela, who was flanked by the hospital’s acting chief executive, Dr Nandi Mbawu. The reasons for the latest delay were not particularly new: a change in the design to include additional theatres, contractual problems and escalating costs of building material and equipment.

Biyela said practical construction had been completed and the contractor had handed over the facility to the Gauteng provincial government. Technicians were busy fitting cables and vital equipment such as x-rays, and these tasks would be completed by the end of next month. He added that radiologists would conduct tests on the equipment in September, before the hospital finally opened. Part of the construction delays, he said, were because the department had to do some alterations on the initial design, which had not incorporated the appropriate health services, from primary healthcare to district and tertiary levels. This had resulted in the addition of two theatres on the third floor and another 100 beds. “The planning for the hospital happened at a time when the government was still conceptualising and defining the appropriate health services,” Biyela said.

It is hoped that Zola-Jabulani Hospital will alleviate congestion at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. It will provide care in maternity, post-natal, gynaecology, obstetrics, radiology and outpatient departments. There also will be a pharmacy, and accident and emergency services. Completion was initially scheduled for March 2008 but this was delayed by mismanagement, tender irregularities and budget overruns. The initial tender of R336m was issued in 2006 to a joint venture between iLima Projects, Motheo Construction Group, Yikusasa Building Contractors and TTR General Building Construction. Motheo, Yikusasa and TTR then pulled out, and the project collapsed. iLima was awarded another contract in 2007, but it was cancelled after it emerged the firm had been awarded the tender without a valid tax clearance certificate. The contract was then awarded to Maziya General Services in 2009.

At the time, costs were said to have risen by 40 percent to R480m. A damning report by Auditor-General Terence Nombembe in May last year found that the provincial health and social development departments had appointed contractors with neither qualifications nor competence to build hospitals, leading to millions of rand in losses. Nombembe found the budgeted cost for construction had increased to R624.4m. Biyela assured Soweto residents that about 100 ambulances, including 40 equipped with high-care equipment and dedicated to pregnant women, had already been procured.