Cutting corners: Major General Mzikayise Tyhalisi (left) ceremonially opened the Albertina Sisulu Mess in 2021. An entirely new mess in a safe location was planned but abandoned for financial reasons.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has spent millions on the upgrade of an army accommodation facility at its military base of Thaba Tshwane, knowing that the building is in an area severely affected by and considered at high risk of dolomite corrosion.
According to geological reports seen by the Mail & Guardian, the area is classified as a class eight risk area. National building regulations indicate that such an area can only be used as parks or for recreation, but not for any type of residential purposes.
The “upgraded” accommodation block was inaugurated at the end of last November, with the main building renamed the Albertina Sisulu Mess.
Cutting corners: Major General Mzikayise Tyhalisi (left) ceremonially opened the Albertina Sisulu Mess in 2021. An entirely new mess in a safe location was planned but abandoned for financial reasons.The accommodation block currently has more than 500 live-in soldiers and is more than 40 years old. It falls within the same area where other residential flats have been evacuated because of dolomite corrosion rendering the buildings dangerous.
Apart from the building being at risk of cracking and collapse, the army has used residents’ recreational fund contributions to pay for extensive construction work on the condemned structure. building. While the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) would not say how much the upgrades cost, it is understood to be more than R10-million.
According to advocate Pikkie Greeff from the South African National Defence Force Union (Sandu), using soldiers’ contributions can be considered a “criminal” act which is forbidden in the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act of 1977 and by the SANDF’s own regulations.
These regulations state specifically that all buildings and facilities for the accommodation of soldiers are to be provided by the SANDF and not with non-public funds such as mess contributions.
The
department of public works and infrastructure has already registered a new project at the beginning of last year to start planning the construction of a new upgraded accommodation facility to replace the condemned building.
According to Thami Mchunu, national spokesperson for the department, the estimated total costs for the new building, for which an area has already been identified in Thaba Tshwane, will be some R500-million.
“The planning of this project was completed around March 2019. This project is at the awarding [of contractors] stage. However, the process of award is currently halted due to non-confirmation of funding by the client department of the department of defence.”
According to Mchunu, the public works department has already spent R34-million on consultants and other contractors to erect and build a new mess where the old Thaba Tshwane hospice used to be.
The severe budget restrictions on the SANDF have unfortunately put the brakes on the project and the public works department cannot go ahead without the defence force or cabinet committing to the funding thereof.
Sources close to the project told the M&G that it was because of this that the army subsequently decided to disregard the official stance and push ahead to use soldiers’ mess contributions to upgrade the dilapidated building nonetheless.
This was despite internal correspondence stating that “we cannot knowingly put people in such a high-risk area”.
What has now effectively been done was to “paper over the cracks”, one officer close to the process explained. Because the regimental funding of soldiers was used to pay for the improvements the construction work is also not listed on the audited construction records of the SANDF for scrutiny by the auditor general.
Greeff said he has already instructed Sandu’s legal division to obtain all records and contracts for the recently completed construction work by means of a Promotion of Access to Information Act process.
“We would also request all the geological reports and findings. Sandu is not going to allow that soldiers are accommodated in an unsafe building, nor for the army to use their contributions to pay for it. A full military police investigation should be instituted into the matter and to determine who approved it. Then those responsible should be charged criminally,” he said.
Greeff said the union would also approach the City of Tshwane about the alleged flouting of the city’s building regulations.
Brigadier General Andries Mokoena Mahapa, spokesperson for the SANDF, responded and confirmed the renovations.
“All the upgrades/renovations at Albertina Sisulu Mess were occupational health and safety related and non-public funds were utilised to renovate the buildings’ window breakages, painting, [and] tiling in order to make the building more habitable for the living-in members.
“City of Tshwane inspectors could have only been required when structural changes were effected, however, in this case no structural changes were made to the buildings,” Mahapa said.
“Processes and procedures were followed and therefore it is highly unlikely that the expenditure will be declared fruitless. The renovations of the buildings were needed to restore the dignity of the members who are occupying those buildings.”
According to Mchunu the public works department has spent more than R23-million in the past 15 years to replace drainage pipes and repair sinkhole damage at the mess. Should the current planned project for a new accommodation block, which will accommodate 1 200 soldiers, be cancelled due to a lack of funding, the R23-million will increase to R55-million, said Mchunu.
Kobus Marais, defence spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance, said he had submitted written questions about the now-completed upgrades as well as the planned ones to parliament.
“I have also asked the Minister of Defence, Thandi Modise, to investigate the role of Major General Mzikayise Tyhalisi, general officer commanding, South African army support division, who spearheaded the upgrades,” Marais added.
Tyhalisi was also in charge of the SANDF’s controversial purchase of the illegal Cuban Covid drug, Heberon Interferon. The auditor general has already pronounced as irregular the R34.86-million spent on the drug without prior approval from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.
The army support division is also leading an unusual project for army units to establish their own bakeries.
The Thaba Tshwane military base is no stranger to controversy. Last September the M&G reported that parliament had heard how unauthorised and wasteful expenditure and the failure to follow procurement processes were only part of a lengthy list of misdemeanours covered in a forensic investigation into repair and maintenance work at the base’s 1 Military Hospital.
Another M&G report in August outlined how that 14 years of continued rotation of responsibility between the department of public works and the defence department to complete the 2006 refurbishment.
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