Whistleblower blames city management for losses in Moses Mabhida sky car flop
|Published
Grounded. The Moses Mabhida Stadium sky car. Picture :Bongani/ Mbatha African News Agency (ANA) Grounded. The Moses Mabhida Stadium sky car. Picture :Bongani/ Mbatha African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - The eThekwini Municipality allegedly lost R8 million in revenue and its reputation suffered because the Moses Mabhida Sky-Car was not working.
An insider with in-depth knowledge of the Sky Car spoke to the Daily News on conditions of anonymity.
He said it is shocking that this iconic installation has been allowed to fall into disrepair after less than 10 years.
He said this reeks of mismanagement and he based his comments on the following facts.
"Prior to Ethekwini taking over the management of the stadium in 2013 the sky-car had only experienced outages of days and not months -service records will prove this. An examination of ticket sales since its inception will show that revenue earned was an average of R450 000 per month with December sales going up to over a million rand – R6-8 million per annum," he said.
He explained that the sky-car is actually a funicular installed by a Canadian company called Garaventa. -In a nutshell it is a cabin that is pulled up the arch by a cable attached to a pulley wheel situated at the bottom of the arch, with the cabin travelling along two I-beam tracks
He said it descends by the force of gravity and has a hydraulic levelling arm that keeps the cabin on the horizontal level as it traverses the curvature of the arch. A key safety feature is its braking system and electronic safety monitoring system.
"The main serviceable parts are therefore the hydraulic levelling arm, the cable, the wheel pulley and its associated drives, the hydraulic braking system on the cabin and on the wheel pulley and the safety monitoring switches on the arch itself as well as various gears and bearings,"he explained.
Regular alignment of the I-beam tracks was recommended but not compulsory
He said indisputable facts which the current management of stadium do not disclose: -
Local hydraulic company Hytec (Pty) ltd were trained and certified by Garaventa to service and maintain the hydraulic systems which they had been doing on a service level agreement of approximately R25 000 per month.
Local lift and escalator company ThyssenKrupp (subsequently bought out by Otis) were trained and certified by Garaventa to service and maintain the drive mechanisms, electronic safety systems and switches on the arch on a service level agreement of approximately R36000 per month
Moses Mabhida staff were trained and certified by Garaventa to operate the sky-car and perform daily housekeeping and safety checks.
Moses Mabhida technical staff were also trained and certified to do evacuations and manual descents as well as first-line troubleshooting
Garaventa has permanent remote access to the software systems for monitoring and troubleshooting at no cost other than an international telephone call
He said all hydraulic filters, gears, bearing and hydraulic oil were sourced locally, and emergency stock was maintained on site
Spare electronic switches and PC boards were kept on site as well as a full set of circuit diagrams and drawings
He added that a lift inspector did an annual inspection and certification of the sky-car
"Any decent manager to keep the sky-car in a working condition. From reports received the sky-car has been out of action for 18 months now – this represents a possible loss of revenue of over R9 million during which period the servicing and maintenance costs should not have exceeded R1 million – a net loss of R8million,"he said.
The stadium manager states that “the procurement process with the international manufacturer had begun” – they are the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and Ethekwini SCM policies caters for and has clearly defined processes to deal with such sole service providers- why does it take 18 months then?
He asked when was the last annexure B inspection done by a lift inspector then and what had happened to the locally trained service providers?
In response to a previous media enquiry related to the sky car, Vusi Mazibuko the acting deputy city manager for community and emergency services said a new sky car will be commissioned in December to replace the old one
He said six eThekwini municipal employees would be sent to the manufacturing company in Switzerland for training.
"During the 2017/18 financial year, more than R1.3m was spent irregularly in servicing and maintaining the sky car and lifts at Moses Mabhida,"he said.
Mazibuko said a company working with the manufacturer was assessing the car.
“The second phase will be the commissioning of the new car, which we expect to be in December. The third phase will be to send six employees in two groups for training so that they can run the car daily. We are looking at identifying people with a certain level of expertise.” Mazibuko said.
He said major maintenance would be done in two-year intervals, with the manufacturer in charge of the process.
The new machine is expected to have a 20-year lifespan.
The Daily News sent the eThekwini Municipality questions on August 5. They are yet to respond.