Although the old Carletonville police station could have been a huge benefit to the community, the government is dragging its feet to repair it.

This came to light when the Herald pressed the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure about the matter during the past few weeks.

The state of the old police station in Ada Street has become a growing issue as it is being vandalised at a huge rate due to the fact that there are no security guards at the facility anymore.

The old police station has now become a crime generator and the police and local security companies regularly arrest people who steal parts of it.

A recent visit to the old police station showed that there are virtually no metal fittings left at the facility. All the vehicle sheds at the back of the building were broken down and stolen. Metal thieves have also stolen all the door frames and even walked off with what was left of the fridges inside that used to be the morgue. They are also removing parts of the roof. Some of the thieves actually stay inside the old building. They sleep inside some abandoned offices and light fires on the floor.

“This place has been messed up to such an extent that it will have to be rebuilt for us to be able to use it again,” a local police officer remarked.

The police station was abandoned in the early 2000s after a sinkhole developed under the cell block. Since then the police have been using an office building in Gold Street as a police station. It is, however, not equipped for the task. There are, for instance, no holding cells and people who have been arrested are kept in an office with a security gate.

“The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has already registered a new project for the construction of a new cell block and renovations to the Carletonville Police Station. A tender has already been advertised for the project to be executed, but the client department has not allocated funding for the department to proceed.

“We are not aware that any money was diverted previously from the project,” said Lennox Mabasa, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure’s spokesperson.

Mabaso referred to the fact that the police station made national news headlines in 2014 after reports that money to fix it was allegedly diverted to fix former president Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.

The “client department” to which he refers is the SAPS, but national SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe did not respond to questions on when they planned to fix the station.