Many of us cannot imagine working in an office that has no water, but for the Germiston police this was a reality for several weeks.
The water supply issues were first brought to the GCN’s attention by Mark Assante, who heard about the station’s troubles through a local service delivery WhatsApp group.
Const Maxwell Mabunda, the communications officer for the Germiston SAPS, confirmed the water supply issues.
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“We have had little to no water in the station’s office block since the Rand Water supply line burst in August,” Mabunda said.
During the outage, Assante, with the help of companies Quicksure, Motor Accident Group, and local community members, donated water to the station to help the officers continue with their daily duties.
“The DA is horrified that police officers in Germiston were forced to bring water from home because the water supply to their station was not working,” said Michele Clarke, Germiston constituency head.
“The Germiston Police Station was without water for weeks, leaving officers with an inhumane and unhygienic problem.
“Although the metro was on site to investigate, no interim water tankers were provided to the police station.
“Similarly, the Department of Public Works, which the South African Police Service (SAPS) rents the offices from, had not intervened, despite the water problem being reported weekly.”
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Responding to queries from the GCN, Nhlanhla Cebekhulu, divisional head of the metro’s communications and media relations department, gave the following statement:
“The metro was fully aware of the problem at the Germiston Police Station.
“The query has been attended to and found that it is an internal problem that must be attended to by the Department of Public Works.”
When asked how law officials could be expected to carry out their duties with no water, taking into account the Germiston Police Station is also home to a forensic department and state mortuary, Cebekhulu said: “The mortuary has a separate connection and water is stored in a tank for emergency conditions.
“The rest of the buildings on the property do have water. Pressure was measured at 3.0 bar.
“It is only the office block that is affected by the water supply interruption.
“The department has even opened fire hydrants on the property and the pressure was good, but still they did not get water in the office block.”
Mabunda told the GCN that the Department of Public Works recently restored water supply to the station’s office building, almost two months after the problem began.
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