R100m more invested to complete Sarah Baartman Centre after decade-long delays

After more than a decade of delays and more than R200-million in expenditure, another lifeline of more than R100-million has been provided to complete the long-stalled Sarah Baartman Centre of Remembrance in Hankey, Eastern Cape.

Since construction began in 2014, the project has lurched from one setback to another, cycling through at least three contractors amid labour disputes, contractual failures and repeated delays.

The project’s chronic delays have been widely bemoaned as a disgrace and an insult to Sarah Baartman, a Khoi woman from the Gamtoos Valley who was exhibited across Europe in the 19th century and subjected to becoming a racist spectacle.

Her remains were repatriated from France and reburied at the site in 2002, where the centre is being built. Once completed, it is expected to house a museum, archives, an auditorium, classrooms, shops and a memorial garden, while creating much-needed jobs in the area.

‘Firm deadline’

Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson, who officially handed the site over to the new contractor – Tewo Building & Civil Contractors – said on Saturday, 4 July 2026, that the company had been given a firm deadline of 20 October 2027 to complete the project.

“So I have also said to everyone, and I’ve said to the contractors, don’t come and ask for another cent [and] don’t come and ask for another day. This is what we’re giving you. We also have to get it right because it is one of our premier recovery projects,” Macpherson said.

The cost associated with completing the centre by the deadline is estimated at R181-million given the “substantive remedial engineering that has to take place”, said Macpherson.

“They couldn’t even spell Sarah Baartman correctly. I mean, you drive in, and it’s ‘Sarah Baartmann’. It is just shocking.

“She has suffered levels of indignity, humiliation that I cannot compare to anything. What has previously been done has only exacerbated that humility and indignity.

“Last year, I went to go and see the community, and I went to apologise firstly to the community of Hankey and to the Khoi and San leaders. I said I didn’t create this problem, [but] I’m going to solve it for you and restore Sarah Baartman’s dignity,” the minister said

‘Frustrating’

Khoi leader Captain Edmund Stuurman of the Gamtouer House of Klaas and the Dawid Stuurman Community described the delays in completing the centre as “frustrating”, blaming failed contractors and unfulfilled promises by former ministers.

He said, however, that they were now “quietly optimistic” that the project would be finalised.

“The community has been to the brink and back. Now there is hope again. But we are, as a community, as community leaders, quietly optimistic that this time around, with the involvement of the community, and also having oversight in what is happening, that this time around, things can be done. In the past, people [contractors] were parachuting in; we were just given people that will work at the centre, and then it’s people that we don’t know,” Stuurman said.

“We are really hoping and believing that this time around, next year, October, that we will be able to, to, you know, be part of the celebrations of the life of Sarah Baartman, Chief David Stuurman, and others in the history of Khoi and San.”

Efforts to recoup funds

Meanwhile, Macpherson said that efforts were being made to recoup funds from previous contractors who had failed to deliver on the project.

In September 2024, after joining the department, Macpherson rejected a joint report by his department and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture on the completion of the centre.

According to reports at the time, construction at the centre had been only 37% completed.

Macpherson, at that stage, said “the centre remains wholly inadequate and … serious action needs to be taken to limit any further wastage of taxpayer money. Not only have both departments failed to brief the ministers on the report presented to Parliament, but it furthermore is simply unacceptable that despite three contractors being involved in the project over a period of 10 years, construction has not even been halfway completed with further delays expected”.

On Saturday, Macpherson said the priority was to complete delayed projects and pursue civil action against contractors paid for incomplete or substandard work.

“It requires a legal process, which is exhaustive and unfortunately expensive itself. I can tell you that the processes are under way. I don’t want to jeopardise it before it comes before court.”

Macpherson said matters were further complicated by some companies involved having gone into liquidation. “But my view, and I’ve expressed this to our legal team – they need to figure it out.”

Macpherson said liquidation should not shield those behind failed companies from accountability. He said authorities had to continue pursuing those involved, even when a company had been wound up and claimed to be insolvent.

“But we always know that these people have assets. And so we need to try and track those assets down. And that’s why it’s so much harder.” He said that was why he could not accept that “a company’s gone into liquidation, the assets have been sold, there’s nothing to recover”.

IDT keen to prove its worth

Macpherson said stronger oversight measures were now in place, particularly through the Independent Development Trust, which he said was “hungry to prove themselves to the government and to the public that they’re actually a force for good”. He said that the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure’s deputy director-general, Luyanda Kafile, would conduct monthly site visits to monitor progress.

“I’ve been very clear to everyone that there’s got to be a work programme, that by the end of each week, we know what is to be completed.

“I’ve also been very clear that we must work hand in hand with the company, so we help manage cash flow.

“We know that cash flow becomes problematic sometimes in construction. But I’ve also said to the team that … what we can’t accept is … their problems becoming our problems. So we want to have a collaborative effort,” Macpherson said. DM