Kimberly mental hospital to be opened — a decade late and six-times over budget
The 286-bed Kimberly Mental Health Hospital was begun in 2006 and will cost R1.86bn, but some MPs are sceptical it will open next month as promised
It is a decade behind schedule with a cost six times more than originally planned, but the Kimberly Mental Hospital will finally be completed in March, Northern Cape officials assured sceptical MPs on Tuesday. To add insult to injury for mental patients, there is now a question mark over whether the Northern Cape provincial health department has the money to run the facility. "There will be financial challenges on completion of the project," Northern Cape health MEC Lebogang Motlhaping told Parliament’s portfolio committee on health. Documents presented to the committee showed the Northern Cape health department projected a R188m budget shortfall to run the hospital at only 75% capacity in the 2018-19 financial year. The tender for the 286-bed hospital was awarded to Vista Park Developers in 2005 and construction began in 2006. It was originally supposed to be handed over to the Northern Cape health department in 2008, but the project was repeatedly delayed, partly due to a legal di...
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