‘Beautiful’ street kids shelter empty for 4 years
● Built more than four years ago, the Salvokop shelter for boys was meant to be a shining example of the government’s commitment to helping Pretoria street children.
“It would have been fantastic, but the problem is that in all these years its doors have never opened,” said Wayne Renkin, of the Tshwane Leadership Foundation, an umbrella body for organisations helping the city’s estimated 10,000 homeless people.
Salvokop was built by Stats SA on the edge of the city centre after the national statistical agency demolished two smaller shelters to make way for its new headquarters.
One of the biggest of its kind in Pretoria, the shelter has three dormitories, which can accommodate up to 90 children, an administration block, playground, dining hall, kitchen, hall and sports field.
No children have ever entered the facility, according to Renkin and City of Tshwane mayoral committee member for social development Sakkie du Plooy.
When the Sunday Times visited the shelter, public works guards were patrolling the grounds and the entrances were padlocked.
“We have been here for two years now. There have never been children here. The previous guards here who came after this place was built also never saw any children,” said a guard who asked not to be named.
“It’s really sad because it’s beautiful inside. There are lots of beds, and a play area.”
Renkin said: “Stats SA built these beautiful buildings, which can house 90 boys, but for what? There are 200 boys living in the heart of the city who desperately need this accommodation but can’t access it because of bureaucracy.” He said they had repeatedly been told by Stats SA that the building had been handed over to public works, which in turn was supposed to hand it to the Gauteng department of social development.
E-mails between the various departments, which the Sunday Times has seen, show that in November 2017 discussions were under way about a tender for a service provider to administer the shelter.
Du Plooy said the city council did not have the money to run the shelter.
“We are in the process of spending R5m refurbishing buildings in the inner city to be used as shelters. We don’t have the manpower or financial capacity to take on this shelter as well. It’s something provincial government must do.”
Busi Kheswa, Gauteng social development spokesperson, referred questions back to the City of Tshwane, saying the centre was never handed over to the province.
Stats SA spokesperson Trevor Oosterwyk said the shelter, completed in 2015, was meant to be run by the social development department. He said the building had not been handed over as either public works or social development were still trying to appoint a “suitable service provider”.
Public works spokesperson Thami Mchunu said the department would appoint a service provider to run the centre and manage the lease, and that social development would manage the operations through an appointed NGO.