{"id":798779,"date":"2024-11-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=798779"},"modified":"2024-11-07T11:02:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T09:02:59","slug":"r1-1-billion-down-the-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/798779\/r1-1-billion-down-the-drain\/","title":{"rendered":"R1.1 billion down the drain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two residential projects by Eskom, amounting to just under R1.1 billion, have been abandoned and left to waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling for the state-owned power utility to appear before Parliament to account for the abandoned R840-million Wilge residential development in Mpumalanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after 2023 reports about the R250 million squandered on housing project in Limpopo,<\/strong><\/a> which now stand vacant and neglected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wilge property development was intended to house the workers of Kendal and Kusile power stations in its 336 apartments \u2013 but nobody has ever occupied these flats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2012, Eskom entered into a contract with the Liviero Group to construct the Wilge flats, with the costs of the contract sitting at R160-million at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original cost per unit was estimated at R770,000, but the project was abandoned after the costs ballooned to over R2.5 million each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2019, the Mail & Guardian reported<\/a> that the state-owned entity had abandoned the project and allegedly spent more than R1-billion on renting accommodation for the same employees it had planned to house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, a meeting of parliament\u2019s standing committee on public accounts heard how Eskom could not provide answers to the money spent on building the flats and that the costs for the development had gone from R160-million to R840-million, mainly attributing it to \u201cfruitless and wasteful expenditure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Failed Eskom housing project ballooned to R840 million<\/a><\/blockquote>