Newly appointed MMC for Corporate and Shared Services Kholofelo Morodi has vowed to revamp dilapidated and abandoned buildings in the City of Tshwane.
On Tuesday Morodi embarked on an inspection tour of three such buildings to see for herself as to how she can revamp the buildings to their former glory.
The said buildings visited by Morodi are the HB Phillips Building, the Tshwane Events Centre and the Pretoria City Hall.
She blamed negligence by former administrations of the City of Tshwane for the dilapidated buildings as no security was provided at these buildings, which as a result were vandalised.
She lamented renovations that were made at the City Hall as they were a waste of money because the City Hall is a heritage site that must be preserved the way it is.
She said the solution is to insource service providers like handymen and security guards who will know what they are doing and be loyal to the City of Tshwane because at the moment such service providers work for private companies and don’t care about the preservation and maintenance of the City’s buildings.
She said millions of rand were spent on renovations at the City Hall and another R170 million will be needed just for the refurbishment of the hall.
“Heads must roll, there must be consequence management and accountability because someone was paid to look after buildings like the City Hall and such people can’t just walk away with impunity after failing to their jobs properly,” said Morodi.
Regarding the abandoned HB Philips Building, Morodi decried the fact that the place has now been turned into a drug den by addicts and that it can be rejuvenated and used as a shelter for homeless people or as an accommodation facility for university students.
“The building has been vandalised and cable theft is rife here, and the place looks like it has been hit by a bomb as it is in a state of ruin,” she said.
“Something as big as an elevator has been stolen at the HB Phillips Building and you can’t attribute the theft of such a huge item to Nyaope addicts, so this particular theft is clearly an activity carried out by sophisticated criminal syndicates, and one would ask as to what the security guards were doing when the elevator got stolen,” lamented Morudu.
On the issue of the Tshwane Events Centre, formerly known as Pretoria Showgrounds, Morodi expressed grief that the structure has been allowed to rot and said through private/public partnership, the centre can be revived so that the City can make money out of it so as to provide much-needed services especially in the townships of Tshwane.
A close source told the Tshwane Talks that the city hall building was literally abandoned more than ten years ago by the City of Tshwane and that a budget of R60 million was allocated more than ten years ago to fix the office component of the building, but that project never materialised.
He said the HB Phillips Building was also abandoned more than ten years ago and has since deteriorated even when there is security personnel living in the building.
On the matter of the idle Tshwane Events Centre, close source revealed that the centre was donated to the Tshwane Business and Agricultural Chamber (Tshwabac) in 1995 and Tshwabac in turn leased the place exclusively to controversial pastor Shepherd Bushiri for his church activities.
The centre was retrieved by the City of Tshwane in 2022 after a 5-year court battle with Tshwabac, which outrightly wanted to sell the centre to private businesses after experiencing financial troubles.