NATIONAL NEWS - A multimillion-rand grant to build a rehabilitation centre in Mpumalanga was approved just 18 days after the Southern African Youth Movement (SAYM) applied for National Lotteries Commission (NLC) funding.
But almost six years later, and with almost R27 million in grants paid to SAYM for the project, the rehab near Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) was still not operational when GroundUp visited the site in October.
R17 million rehab project
According to a 2021 investigation by audit firm Nexius SAB&T, leaked to GroundUp, the initial funding allocated and paid to SAYM in 2016 to build the Mbombela rehab was for R17 million, although it had applied for R27.4 million. This included R2 million for operating costs.
Then, less than five months later – sometime between February and March 2017 – SAYM successfully applied to the NLC for a further R5 million to build an “indoor sports centre”, according to the Nexius report.
Yet, when GroundUp visited the project in October this year, almost six years later, construction of the sports centre, which only began earlier this year, was still continuing.
