Government departments pass the buck in Martin School mess

The stench is overwhelming and one has to watch their step when entering what’s left of Martin School in Boksburg. There is human excrement everywhere, much of it freshly squeezed. The flies are plague-like.

Three weeks ago, The Citizen featured shacked-up residents of the condemned school who continue to live in its squalid conditions. An oversight visit by Ekurhuleni council members and a local resident saw the group bolting back to their cars, scratching for Covid masks to block out the overpowering stench.

Martin School was founded by its first principal, Matthew Martin, in 1909. It was eventually abandoned when the school moved to larger premises. Government subsequently allowed the property to become derelict.

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DA Ward councillor hosts visits to the derelict building

Ward DA councillor Madelaine Muller hosted the visit. She said that the heap of bricks, faeces and waste has been unchanged for a number of years. Her predecessor tried for years to get it demolished and the neighbourhood cleaned up. She has tried too. Muller said: “I have been petitioning, speaking to all the relevant departments ad nauseam and nothing has been done. It should be demolished and its residents accommodated by social services.”

She said: “For people to live under these conditions is unacceptable. There is the most horrific smell of urine and faeces that’s inside this building. It’s absolutely horrendous. And the dirt is disgusting. Nobody should live under conditions like this.”

It’s also become a neighbourhood haven for drug addicts and a criminal hideout. Ekhuruleni council DA whip for the area Simon Lapping commiserated with Muller.

Lapping said: “When I walked in here, it was absolutely disgusting. And I was actually warned not to come in here for risk of safety. It was just filth. Burned down walls, peeled paint, everything is rotten. And I don’t even know how the homeless could call this home because conditions are so squalid here.”

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Property value in the area drops

He added: “There’s been shootings here and the property values in the area have completely dropped. This situation needs to be remedied quickly and soon as possible.”

But Lapping does not hold out much hope. The property belongs to the province and the Ekurhuleni metro has no jurisdiction. He said: “That’s where the problem comes in. So, the only thing that the municipality can do is to sustain pressure on the departments of Public Works and of Education to take responsibility for the mess that they have created. So far, it’s all fallen on deaf ears.”

Martin School was once the pride of the neighbourhood

Local resident Dan Steyn remembered Martin School when it was the pride of the neighbourhood.

He said: “This was a very proper school back in the day. It was a primary school, a modern school. It was [a] beautiful building. It was top-notch.” He was saddened by the state that the property was left in.

Steyn said: “This is a metaphor for our government’s incompetence, ineptitude and the inability to grasp a wide range of problems that beset communities.”

Gauteng’s Department for Public Works, the body responsible for oversight on taxpayer fixed property assets, said that it was not their responsibility to deal with the building and told the Saturday Citizen to contact the Department of Education instead.

In turn, the Department of Education first asked for a deadline extension and then still did not respond to the publication’s request for comment.