Court slams use of police in Bara construction dispute

Force was used against workers

- By Nkululeko Ncana

A high court judge has condemned the unlawful use of SAPS flying squad members together with high-speed patrol officers to forcefully remove a building contractor from a multi-million rand oncology centre construction site at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital last month.

The fallout between Unicore Holdings a pharmaceutical company - and AIS Construction Engineers played itself out in the Pretoria High Court, where it emerged that the construction of oncology centres at Chris Hani Baragwanath and Dr George Mukhari hospitals is in jeopardy.

Unicore, which has been contracted to build the centres at a cost of R300-million by the Gauteng Department of Health, wholly subcontracted the work to AIS, which commenced construction last year.

Unicore terminated its contract with AIS on July 10 this year, and in a dramatic show of force, flying squad members and highway patrol police stormed the construction site and forcibly removed the construction engineering company’s employees.

Judge Dirk van Zyl described the move as deplorable, given that they were caught on camera and that this footage had been viewed by the court.