Residents hunt for ‘serial soiler’

Outrage over dilapidated state of Provincial Hospital, with area being used as an open-air toilet

MOUNT Croix residents are on the hunt for a serial soiler who is stinking up the street outside Provincial Hospital.

They are so irate with the person – or perhaps people – who has taken to having a number two next to a hospital boundary wall that is gradually falling over, that there was an uproar at a recent public meeting.

The “serial soiler” is going about his business despite regular security patrols at the hospital.

The DA’s Bobby Stevenson said yesterday he had been part of an inspection at the hospital.

The boundary wall was collapsing and litter was strewn around the grounds.

They had even caught a perpetrator in the act.

“We saw a man pulling up his pants after defecating under the trees,” he said.

He said the public meeting had been conducted by the local councillor, and the state of Provincial Hospital had once again been a key issue.

“Residents are rightly quite upset,” he said.

“The hospital’s boundary wall is collapsing, the nurses’ home is in a state and there are many reports of partying and noise from there.

“The place is a real health hazard.”

Mount Croix Residents’ Assocation chairman Gary Koekemoer said they had been complaining about the state of the hospital for years.

He confirmed that complaints about the mess under the trees and the littering had been raised at the meeting.

“We will fix the wall ourselves if someone can give us permission to do so.”

It was also not clear whether the Department of Health or of Public Works would take responsibility for the building, he said.

The current security situation at the hospital was completely unacceptable, he said.

“There don’t seem to be any security patrols. Why isn’t anybody monitoring the grounds?

“There are a lot of empty buildings there and it is a big space.”

He said following a string of complaints about noise at the nurses’ home, it had become quiet for a few months.

“Now the partying has started up again.”

He said they were hoping the department would renovate the building, which is more than 100 years old, to its former glory.

“It can become a building of great beauty and an attraction if something similar to the Tramways building can be done,” he said.

Eastern Cape health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the department had removed its students from the nurses’ home earlier this year following persistent complaints from residents of Mount Croix about noise and rowdy behaviour. He said he believed that students from another institution were now being housed at the nurses’ home.

He did not respond to questions on plans to renovate the hospital.