R324m spent on Mpumalanga sports centre that was never built

What designers and architects envisaged the facility looking like, left, and what is on the ground now. Pictures: Facebook/MEC Thulasizwe Thomo Political parties in Mpumalanga are calling on the authorities to investigate the circumstances delaying the multibillion-rand high-altitude training centre, which was to be built in Belfast near Middelburg. The parties said this after it transpired that since 2012, the Mpumalanga department of culture, sport and recreation has spent over R324 million, but construction has not yet started.

Some preliminary work has been done on water supply and other infrastructure, but nothing is near completion and work has stalled. A recent report from thedepartmentrevealed they need R5.2 billion to continue with construction. Grandiose plans for the centre were drawn up in 2012.

The complex includes lavish international standard training facilities for a number of sports, as well as a state-of-the-art sports injury treatment and injury facility. The department’s vision includes construction of fields and facilities for 18 different sports, ranging from soccer, rugby, athletics, cycling and swimming to angling and white-water kayaking. Land near the town of Belfast was purchased for the project.

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Themba Godi, leader of the African People’s Convention (APC) and former parliamentary standing committee on public accounts chair, said his party has consistently said capital projects in Mpumalanga seem, by design, to always be delayed, run over budget and be immersed in wasteful and fruitless expenditure. “This particular project is no different from what we have come to experience in Mpumalanga. We, as the APC, demand that people must be held responsible for all of this.

“We have seen how the president and the premier have spoken out against corruption and yet their actions are just corrupt through and through.” Godi said he would like to see what the law enforcement agencies would do in relation to the senior government officials who allowed this to happen. “We want to see the culprits arrested, including the MECs.” Bosman Grobler, a DA member in the provincial legislature, said hisparty has been closely monitoring the progressof the much-anticipated project.

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