Old police station now a crime generator
The facility has been of no use to the public for most of the past 20 years.
Instead of helping to combat crime in the area, the old Carletonville police station now draws criminals to the area instead.
On Monday afternoon at about 15:00 two men were removing large sheets of corrugated iron from the back of the abandoned police station in Ada Street. Luckily security officers from Gladiator were able to arrest one of them.
“We catch people there almost on a daily basis, and it looks as if the problem is becoming worse every week,” says their owner, Andre van Jaarsveld. According to Van Jaarsveld, their security officers chased after both of Monday’s thieves, but one got away.
“They steal corrugated iron, copper and plumbing pipes and various other goods. The old police station has become a place for these criminals to get easy picks as there do not seem to be any security around anymore,” he says.
He mentions that the worst problem however, is the fact that some scrap metal dealers around Oberholzer always buy the stolen scrap and thus gives the thieves an incentive to steal. Residents staying in the area of the old police station complain that the fence at the back of the facility has been loosened and even stolen in places. This makes it much easier for thieves to enter. There are, as far as could be seen, also no guards watching the facility anymore. The police station does not belong to the South African Police Service, but to the Department of Public Works, however was abandoned in the mid 2000’s after a sinkhole developed under what used to be the facility’s old mortuary.
It temporarily gained national media attention a decade ago when a report by the then Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela revealed that R20 million, which was allocated for dolomite risk management projects within the DPW was reallocated to the project to fix up the Nkandla homestead of the then president, Jacob Zuma. A project to repair the Carletonville police station was supposed to have been paid for by the funds that were shifted. Although the DPW owns the old police station, the National Department of Infrastructure Development would be responsible for repairing the old facility.
At the time of print an official of this department, Lennox Mabaso was unable to share any light on whether there are still plans to repair the old police station.
