On Monday, a group of concerned residents from the Siloam area marched to Siloam Hospital to hand over a memorandum of demands to the management of the Siloam Hospital Building Project.
A report by online publisher Groundup last year showed how dilapidated and unsafe the hospital's building structures had become. This after former President Jacob Zuma had launched a project by the National Health Department in 2014 to build a new hospital in Siloam. Construction of the R1.5 billion hospital project only began in June last year (2022) and is expected to be completed by July 2028.
The communities around Siloam, however, have several concerns around the project. Their demands include their being informed about the tenders offered to subcontractors. They want to know who the subcontractors are and how the tenders were offered. According to the concerned group, an agreement was reached before construction started that general labourers would be recruited from the villages through SANCO (South African National Civic Organisation), which the protesters claim was not done. They also wanted to know how many general labourers have been employed on the project.
The concerned group further wants to know what criteria were used for appointing the community liaison officer (CLO) for the project, and who the panel members were who had appointed the CLO.
According to the concerned group, the project is expected to have a 30% local benefit. They demanded to know who the beneficiaries were and how the 30% was being distributed.
With their list of demands, the group members insisted that no interference be allowed from Cllr Khuliso Mukheli and other ANC comrades at the construction work site.
Responding to Limpopo Mirror's media enquiry, the CLO for the project, Rendani Ravele, said: "We only received the memorandum yesterday, so we are still looking into the matters raised by the concerned group. We will respond to the concerned group within the seven days."