Maternity ward construction resumes

ILENI NANDJATOONANDJOKWEConstruction work on the long-awaited maternity facilities at the Onandjokwe State Hospital has resumed with the original contractor.This follows an intervention by health minister Kalumbi Shangula and executive director Ben Nangombe when they visited the project in February this year.Amupolo Building Construction owner Erasmus Amupolo told Namibian Sun that they will redo the floorwork that halted the project for four years.The N$59 million maternity ward project was scheduled for completion in 2016 but ground to a halt because of problems with the flooring specifications. ResumeThe hospital's medical superintendent, Dr Akutu Munyika, says there is no specific deadline for completion.“The contractor is busy on site as we are speaking and it is the same contractor. We still need to have few site meetings to establish when the work has to be completed,” said Munyika.When the project was stopped by the ministry of works and transport, the contractor was busy putting on the roof.Amupolo said Shangula and Nangombe had a meeting with him to hear his side of the story and they decided to let him continue with the project.“During the meeting, the executive director and the minister said they were happy with the work done on the site; however I was working too slowly as they wanted this project to be completed as soon as possible. I told them that I had a problem with material and if they wanted the project completed on time, they must buy me materials,” said Amupolo.“They have bought all the materials, some of which have already been delivered at the site while those coming from South Africa are yet to be delivered.”Floor workAmupolo said he was now waiting the ministry of works to approve his quotation for the floor work since it was not part of the contract.“We have to remove the whole floor and replace it with a new floor, which requires installing steel reinforcement bars. This is new work and has to be quoted differently,” he said.This was all due to a misunderstanding between the contractor and the consulting engineer, as the original floor was done without steel reinforcement.

Maternity ward construction resumes

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Namibian Sun 2026-06-03

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Maternity ward construction resumes

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Namibian Sun 2026-06-03

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