In what appears to be an extraordinary planning omission, the opening of a state-of-the-art R68 million police station in Grahamstown will be delayed indefinitely, because the area in which the facility was built has no electricity infrastructure.
In what appears to be an extraordinary planning omission, the opening of a state-of-the-art R68 million police station in Grahamstown will be delayed indefinitely, because the area in which the facility was built has no electricity infrastructure.
Construction of the new Extension 6 police station started early last year and in October, provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Sibongile Soci told Grocott's Mail it would open in December.
In an email this week, however, police spokesman Lieutenant Khaya Tonjeni said delays meant the police station would not open this year. A radio mast still needed to be built and additional security and safety measures need to be installed for the storerooms.
Most significantly, there was also a problem getting an Eskom connection to the station.
The Department of Public Works [under whose management the building of the police station falls]is currently in negotiations with Makana Municipality regarding the permanent electricity supply, Tonjeni said.
The police said it was unclear how long it would take to get a connection, emphasising that without it, the station could not be operational.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail yesterday municipal spokesman Mncedisi Boma said Makana Municipality had no network distribution in the area where the new police station is situated.
That area is under Eskom and the Department of Public Works is in negotiations with Eskom, not the municipality, Boma said.
This is the latest in a string of scandals stalling the completion of the much-needed facility.
Building was halted at the site in January when it emerged that police management had failed to submit building plans and fees to the municipality.
This was resolved and operations resumed in February.
Then, in May, Councillor Piryawaden Ranchhod announced that there would be rewards for those busting illegal activities after he and other officials pounced on WBHO construction company at the site.
The company's construction foreman, Nico Groenewald, confessed that the company was using water stolen from Makana Municipality to build the new police station.
In October, Makana Council called for action after it emerged that a crucial procedure in the planning of the police station had been overlooked.
Grocott's Mail reported that during a special council meeting in October, Speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaac gave acting municipal manager Thembinkosi Myalato a deadline to explain why a Permission To Occupy and Build (PTOB) certificate had not been issued. The faux pas emerged in a report from Myalato's office dated 10 October proposing that the municipality grant the SAPS clearance to build on erven 574 and 7461. According to the report, permission was requested in a letter dated 9 January 2007.
The report recommended that Council grant the SAPS permission to occupy and build on the land and that the certificate is handed to the Department of Public Works after the police settle all outstanding amounts.
