Twelve years after building started, the Sarah Baartman Centre of Remembrance still isn’t finished. Now the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) says there is no new money for it either.
Chief financial officer Israel Mokgwamme told Parliament the department is having to find the money from within its own budget.
“As we know, there was no additional budget. We are supposed to look for the money around. So some of the money will come from the heritage assets,” Mokgwamme said.
He was presenting DSAC’s first-quarter financial report to the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture on Friday, 25 September.
Mokgwamme said funds had been shifted so that the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure could carry on building.
“Just to report that the shifting of funds during the adjustment budget was done, so we are now in a position to say we do have the budget for the 2026/27 financial year for Public Works to do the Sarah Baartman project,” he said.
The heritage assets budget line is part of DSAC’s capital spending. Mokgwamme said spending on it would be slow because money was being set aside for the centre.
DSAC’s capital budget for buildings and other infrastructure this year is R86 million. By the end of June, none of it had been spent.
“By the end of the first quarter, we had not yet spent anything. The service provider was appointed at the end of March,” Mokgwamme said.
The centre in Hankey, in the Eastern Cape, honours Sarah Baartman. She was a Khoikhoi woman taken to Europe in the early 1800s and exhibited as a curiosity. Her remains were returned to South Africa and buried in Hankey in 2002.
Construction of the centre began in 2014. It has gone through at least three contractors. By September 2024, it was only 37% complete, according to Daily Maverick.
More than R200 million had already been spent. In July this year, the government announced a further R100 million and a new contractor, Tewo Building & Civil Contractors. The new deadline is 20 October 2027.
Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson gave the contractor a warning at the handover.
“Don’t come and ask for another cent [and] don’t come and ask for another day,” he said.
The estimated cost to finish is R181 million.
DSAC did not tell the committee how much it is moving from its heritage assets budget, or which projects will lose out.
Minister Gayton McKenzie did not attend the meeting. He sent an apology, citing a long-standing prior commitment. Director-General Cynthia Khumalo left before the financial report was presented.
