The Director-General (DG) mediates in the Nelson Mandela Museum project completion delay 13 September 2014.
Public Works DG Mr. Mziwonke Dlabantu visited the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha in Eastern Cape to intervene after constructors refurbishing the museum continuously missed completion deadlines of the project.
The project which should have been finished and handed over in January 2014 has been hit by numerous revisions of timelines which have proved costly to the client, necessitating the DG to intervene.
The Nelson Mandela Museum is one of three Mandela museums in the area, others being at Mvezo and Qunu both villages outside Mthatha.
The DG’s visit on Saturday, 13 September 2014 follows an earlier meeting he had with the Nelson Mandela Museum Council at the request of the council to express concerns about the delays in the project.
According to the main contractor, Inyatsi Construction, the delays were caused by a number of factors including the late delivery of materials to finalise finishings, insistence by certain suppliers to be paid upfront and the unforeseen problem of water seepage in the basement storage area which required a mitigating wall to be erected.
Inyatsi Construction won the 26 months contract to refurbish the Bhung a building in Mthatha, which houses the Nelson Mandela memorabilia and other artefacts, in November 2011.
In the briefing meeting with the contractor, the consultants and the client representatives, assurances were given to the DG that all the work on site will be completed by 30 September 2014, paving the way for the department to sign-off the project and hand-over the building to the Nelson Mandela Museum Council, which is the agency of the Department of Arts and Culture.
