DPW responds to reports of terrible state of Boksburg Magistrate’s Court’s holding cells
The Department of Public Works (DPW) is planning to give the Boksburg Magistrate's Court's building a complete facelift, and construction works is expected to begin early next year.
Workers complain that they have been trying to get the department to address the inhumane conditions in the holding cells, but the situation is becoming worse on a day-to-day basis.
In its response to our lists of questions with regard to the reported poor maintenance of the court’s holding cells, DPW spokesperson, Thami Mchunu, said the department was not aware of any reported inhumane conditions in the holding cells, or the court as a whole.
He added that an urgent inspection of the facility would be conducted.
“The department does quarterly services of high pressure cleaning of drains under maintenance. If there is a blockage or burst pipe in between the user logs a call with our call centre. Currently we received nine calls that where logged since the start of the financial 2019/2020.
“Under Building Section the last call which was logged was on July 23. The call was attended to on the July 24. Various foreign objects were found in the sewerage line like blankets and others.”
Mchunu stated that there is a project registered to attend to infrastructure in general.
“There is a day-to-day guideline that the client (court) and DPW follows when it comes to maintenance. Leaking taps are attended to by the client department with their own budget.
“Facility management deals with day-to-day work, meaning as and when there is maintenance required, then the department attends to it.
“The client or user logs calls as and when there is maintenance required. The call centre operates for 24hours and no maintenance can be attended to without reference numbers.
“There is underground seepage in the cells and the DPW installed a pump to deal with the rising water levels. If the pump fails, the client logs a call for it to be repaired via the call centre.
When asked as to how much money is spent on maintaining the court facility per year, Mchunu said, “the money spent on maintaining the court depends on the need/ call logged. To date the repairs done under day to day maintenance are estimated to plus minus R59350.”
Workers also complain of poor standards of hygiene at the court, and when asked if the department look into the reasons for this, he said DPW was not aware of any poor standards of hygiene at the court. However, the photos sent to this publication tell a different story.
The Boksburg Magistrate’s Court is in a shocking state of disrepair overall, so we asked the department when the facility would undergo refurbishment.
“The project for the complete repair and renovation for Boksburg Magistrate Court has been initiated and is in the process of consultants’ appointment. We expect that the appointment of the contractor will take place in February/March 2020,” responded Mchunu.
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