Public Works meltdown feared

The Department of Public Works - the state's property manager - is in a shambles and there is mounting "concern" about the increasing number of police officers being kicked out of their offices.

In at least four provinces, police officers have either been locked out or evicted from their offices, which has led to some working "from their cars".

The continuing evictions have raised questions about police morale and service delivery, with experts calling for Public Works and the police to hold an emergency meeting.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has admitted that his department is in a shambles and does not have the necessary oversight over the buildings it is meant to administer.

Nxesi said recently that he had asked a number of government departments to assist in cleaning up Public Works and restoring its image.

Nxesi's department has, since January 31, been administering 1365 leases for office space, living quarters and land for the SA Police Service.

In the past few months, several evictions have been reported.

• A source in crime intelligence said on Monday that several crime intelligence and organised crime officers were briefly locked out of their offices at the old JSE building in central Johannesburg when they reported for duty.

The officers were back at work yesterday and denied being locked out. But others confirmed the incident;

• Two weeks ago, police officials working in the cluster supply chain services unit in Polokwane were evicted from their office after a lease was not renewed on time;
• A police station in Makhado has had its electricity disconnected because of non-payment;
• According to a source, police officials face eviction in at least five other offices in Polokwane and Modimolle because of lease problems; and
• Earlier this month, the sheriff of the court evicted 35 officers from the detective unit at Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg.

The offices, located around the corner from the police station, were emptied and furniture was dumped at the station's parking ground.

Marina Constas, chairman of the Bedfordview Community Policing Forum, said the officers were evicted after Public Works failed to pay the monthly rent of R23000 for several months.

This is, however, not the first time that the officers have been evicted from the same premises, Constas said.

"This is a joke. It is not fair on those policemen. Most of them are sitting with the dockets in their cars."

Constas said the Bedfordview police station lacked adequate facilities, including cells.

When residents offered to raise R14-million to build a new police station, provincial police officials rejected the offer, saying raising the further R27-million needed was not a police priority.

Gauteng police provincial spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the police were still looking for a building to accommodate the officers because the space they had at the Bedfordview police station "is not enough".

National police spokesman, Colonel Vish Naidoo said his department was concerned at the number of incidents of officers being locked out of, or evicted from, their offices.

Naidoo said that six weeks ago officers were locked out of a rented building in Mitchells Plain, in Cape Town, and there was a similar incident at about the same time in KwaZulu-Natal.

He blamed the problem on Public Works, the department responsible for maintaining state buildings and managing the state's leases.

"We have honoured all our payments, which go via Public Works. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on what goes wrong, as that falls under Public Works," he said.

But Public Works spokesman Thamsanqa Mchunu blamed the police, saying that. in most instances, when leases approached their expiry date Public Works informed the department and requested a procurement instruction.

He said the police service failed to provide a procurement instruction.

"This is a document that confirms the availability of funds and a need for that lease to continue. If this document is received, [Public Works] concludes the lease with the landlord and pays all rental costs.

"[Public Works] is unable to conclude the lease agreement as it is not assured of either the need for the building or the availability of funds," Mchunu said.

"This is the biggest problem [Public Works] is dealing with, whereby departments do not comply with a statutory requirement to enable [Public Works] to carry out its task of providing accommodation to them."

Oscar Skommere, general secretary of police union Sapu, said the union was "concerned" and embarrassed by the lease situation, and that Public Works should consider a long term plan that would allow the police to occupy their own buildings.

"Incidents like these compromise service delivery as they have a negative impact on the morale of officers."

Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies, said that though Nxesi had conceded there were problems an emergency meeting was needed to find a quick solution because policing was being compromised.