Vandals strip office building at municipality sleeper site
Metro says there is no budget for private security services
A building on the sleeper site belonging to Buffalo City Metro has been vandalised by brazen thieves.
The information was brought forward by the DA who carried out an oversight visit to the building.
DA BCM caucus chair Vaughan Holmes and PR councillor Sue Bentley said they were shattered by what they saw.
“We are going to raise questions with BCM.
“The theft apparently started in January,” Holmes said.
According to the DA, the building is supposed to house spatial planning and development heads of department and senior managers.
“We knew that if we got a case number dated the day we contacted Mr Bam [Siphiwo Bam heads property management & land administration at BCM], then any explanation of why it was only dated then would be untrue — up until we contacted him on Monday, officials in BCM were intentionally keeping the situation under wraps,” Bentley said.
The explanation the DA received was that the case had been reported to the police on February 23 but no case number had been received. Another case was opened this week.
“BCM was supposed to have responded on Monday to the DA caucus to supply us with a case number. None was received until Tuesday afternoon,” Holmes said.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya confirmed the theft.
“Yes, the building has been vandalised. We have reported and opened a case with SAPS and the matter is under investigation. The building was meant for BCM directorates and departments.
“Our municipal insurance has been made aware of the theft. However, the cost estimate of the damages cannot be quantified,” he said.
Holmes said: “It is time that people responsible should be held accountable in their personal capacity so that it is not always the taxpayer who foots the bill. There is too much financial mismanagement and cadre deployment within the municipality.”
The Dispatch visited the building on Wednesday. The security booth was locked, with no security in sight.
The electricity box next to it had been vandalised and left open with live wires.
The box has been cordoned off with danger tape.
“There is no allocated budget available for private security services,” Ngwenya said.
“However, our law enforcement services, together with SAPS do conduct joint patrolling operations to safeguard the premises.”
An ablution block near the security booth has been stripped of two sinks, while the toilet bowl and cistern are nowhere to be found.
The locks have been cut off the front gate and there is no front door.
At the entry, electricity boards had been removed as well as a fire hydrant.
Telephone and computer cables from 11 offices have been stripped and removed, and the remnants of air conditioner units lie abandoned on the floors. The Dispatch counted 11 spaces where air conditioner units were once mounted outside the building.
The glass door to a computer server box and blinds lay discarded on the floor.
Two empty bottles of alcohol were seen. There were faeces in some offices.
A side entrance heavy-duty burglar gate has been removed from its hinges and stolen.
The passage and bathroom tiles remain intact as well as the laminated floors in the offices.
Three bathroom basins out of four are missing. The fourth lay broken on the floor. Two urinals were gone, glue on the walls the only evidence of them having been there.
The kitchen’s marble top, sink, taps, and cupboard handles are gone.
All electrical cables, plugs, switches, and sockets have been carefully removed.
Four cast-iron manhole covers have been looted.
“This is a reflection of a very sad trend of the state of crime in our city and as such we are calling on anyone with information to assist with the police investigation,” Ngwenya said.
Our municipal insurance has been made aware of the theft. However, the cost estimate of the damages cannot be quantified