No plan to restore Umhlali police station, says minister

Every day the dedicated men and women of the Umhlali Police Station put on their uniforms and go to work, not knowing if today could be the day that they do not come home; and they do it in unacceptable circumstances.

The Courier reported last week on the dismal state of the station in Umhlali, already stretched to the limits in covering a huge area and now seemingly falling apart at the seams.

Responding to questions from local DA MP Dean MacPherson, minister of public works Thulas Nxesi said there was currently no maintenance budget set aside specifically allocated to the Umhlali Police Station.

“The Department of Public Works (DPW) has a consolidated day-to-day maintenance budget and attends to emergencies and defects for all state-owned buildings utilising this budget.”

He said there neither major renovations nor an upgrade project planned for the Umhlali Police Station in the current financial year.

Also read: Umhlali station not up to scratch

“Should the South African Police Service prioritise and request that DPW execute upgrading works to the infrastructure, a procurement instruction along with confirmation of funding from the SAPS CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) budget will have to be forwarded to the DPW.

“In the interim, the DPW attends to emergencies and day-to-day maintenance requests from the station when reported.”

In the last Courier report, it was identified that Umhlali Station suffers from multiple infrastructure issues – from storing dockets in holding cells due to lack of space, to leaky roofs, unfilled senior positions and more.

“Basically, there is no budget for maintenance and no projects planned for the station this year!” MacPherson said.

KwaDukuza municipal media liaison officer Sipho Mkhize said the problems with the station lied outside the scope of KDM’s responsibilities, pointing to DPW as the responsible party.
Until the cooperation between DPW and SAPS gets streamlined, it would appear as though the police at Umhlali Station will just have to tough it out while doing their best to serve the public.

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