Twenty-six inmates have been trained and given skills through a multi-million rand prison repair and renovation project in Klerksdorp, in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District in North West Province. This was revealed by Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala. This was during his visit to inspect the progress in constructing the Klerksdorp Correctional Centre last week Tuesday.
Four sub-contractors have also benefited from the project, and 40 job opportunities were created, including hiring people who come to work with contractors. Zikalala was joined by the District Municipality Executive Mayor, Nikiwe Num, the Acting Deputy Regional Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services Nhlelelo Nsono, MMCs from the district, and the City of Matlosana Local Municipality.
Zikalala's visit was part of preparations for President Cyril Ramaphosa's Presidential Imbizo, which was held last week Friday at the Ikageng Sports Complex near Potchefstroom in the JB Marks Local Municipality. According to the Department, the R94 million extension and renovation project of the correctional facility in Klerksdorp is a three-year project that started in August 2022.
It includes a new centre that is constructed based on phases - as the work to be done was calculated to have three phases - of which the first phase of the facility is already complete. The first phase comprises of the health facility, which is only left with lights to be installed, while the first block of holding cells is also completed.
Only painting is still underway, and the kitchen still needs to be given more attention as part of it had some electrical failures that caused it to catch fire due to electrical connections. The facility has yet to be handed over to the Department of Correctional Services due to approval issues from the department.
The Department of Correctional Services inspector has noted a few problems that need to be taken care of before they can approve the facility to be handed over to the relevant department, and that includes the fencing, which also needs to be redone for security reasons. Zikalala further said the district and the Deputy Minister in his department, will visit the project quarterly to ensure it is monitored.
"We are satisfied with the progress made so far on several of those challenges," he said. District Mayor Num said they are also happy about the report given to them by the department and the contractors regarding how things are moving with the project, besides the delays caused by some steps missed in the planning phase.
Perseverance Madoda, the Director of Perserv Con Construction, the main contractor of the project, said she is happy with the support she gets from both the department and the client, despite challenges she had from the local SMMEs, whom she called construction mafias. She said they demanded to be appointed to install the fence without any knowledge of the job.
She said they have had two disruptions from the SMMEs thus far, and the consequences they are currently facing as the main contractor are to fix the mistakes done by the SMMEs at their own cost as the main contractor.
