MPs unimpressed by king’s cultural centre in Nongoma

PARLIAMENT has made damning findings on the multimillion-rand “cultural centre” built to accommodate maidens who attend the reed dance.

In a report after a visit to the Enyokeni Cultural Centre at King Goodwill Zwelithini’s royal palace in Nongoma, the arts and culture portfolio committee said the project was neither costed nor budgeted for.

“There was no business plan to guide the implementation of the project. This resulted in additional work being added to the original master plan… which meant additions could be made as and when a need arose,” the committee said.

During their visit to the project in September, members of Parliament had found shoddy workmanship and collapsing infrastructure at the R600 million facility.

The project is supposed to consist of a museum, dormitory, amphitheatre and playground.

It is meant to host multicultural activities and have a heritage precinct intended to promote arts, culture and heritage through hosting various festivities and ceremonies. It was started after the Department of Arts and Culture had made a commitment of R131m to support the project in 2014/15, though the project did not appear in the annual performance plan.

This was after Zwelithini and the Zulu royal house requested capital funding from the department in 2013.

The committee said the project had been implemented without proper planning, and additional phases were added without due consideration.

“This, together with the misspent funds, was why the committee visited the project.”

It found that the project manager did not ensure that contractors charged the department market-related tariffs, resulting in R28.6m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

There was also no monitoring of allocated funds.

“The committee observed that the Department of Arts and Culture did not understand the escalation of costs of the installation of the water tank resulting from an unclear scope of work, which led to the variation orders of R4.2m.”

The report said there was no official hand-over of the project, resulting in confusion over who was supposed to maintain the completed works.

“There was no maintenance plan, such that the 2.5 megalitre tank is already leaking,” the report said.

“The amphitheatre area cost R37.9m. However, there were visible cracks in the walls which might be indicative of shoddy workmanship.”

It also said a roof covering and ablution facilities were still outstanding.