Cops suddenly sent packing from ‘uninhabitable’ police barracks

It’s a place not fit for human habitation. The lifts don’t work, there is no electricity, the windows are dirty or broken, glass from smashed beer bottles is scattered across the floors.

It looks like a hijacked central business district building… but it’s the main police barracks in Pretoria.

Now, police management says it is evicting the cops staying there. Police officials living in the Pretoria Central Police Station barracks will soon find themselves on the streets.

Forcing people to leave

Management has denied cutting off electricity and water supply to the building as a way to force people to leave.

Claims were made to The Citizen that eviction notices were issued on Friday last week for people to leave by Monday next week.

However, this was denied by police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, who said the eviction process had not started but management was following legal action in issuing the eviction notices.

Walking into the building, one is greeted by a gloomy light with a dank smell and peeling paint.

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Broken glass from beer bottles, dirty and broken windows, with children playing in the passageways set the tone of the building.

Because the lifts do not work, people are forced to use the stairs.

Dried human excrement is smeared on the banister of a flight of stairs.

The sixth floor has been abandoned, as residents say the sewage came from that floor, resulting in those who were staying there moving out.

Building deemed unsafe

It is understood the building was inspected by the department of employment and labour in May 2022, which Nevhuhulwi confirmed.

The inspection deemed the building not safe for human habitation.

Nevhuhulwi said it did not have serviceable ablution facilities but she did not explain why it had taken more than 16 months from the building being declared unfit for human habitation for anything to do done about it.

She said there were also illegal electricity connections and police officials had been renting out their rooms to private people.

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“The management is on top of this matter, as internal investigations have started,” she said.

Asked whether they had provided the tenants with alternative places to stay, Nevhuhulwi said they would follow processes in terms of evictions.

However, this has not gone down well, with the police members who reside at the barracks threatening to take their bosses to court if they continue with the removals.

A police official who stays at the barracks said he was deployed to a local police station for a month, only to come back last Saturday and to be told he needed to vacate the premises.

Water and electricity cut off

The member said on his return, the water and electricity were cut off.

“The challenge now is, you need to iron elsewhere, you need to find a place where you must bath and because I am from [a different province], there is no way I can say I am going to stay at a family member,” the member said.

With the looming Monday deadline, the member said people had started to look for alternative accommodation.

However, because others did not have money and had already paid their rent for the barracks, they could not afford it.

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“Where will I go because they have not even provided us with alternative accommodation?” said the worried official.

“I do not think I’ll find a place and I do not know what will happen on Monday.

“What will happen to those who do not have money and alternative accommodation by Monday.” Some of the tenants had put money together to legally challenge the state on their evictions

“This doesn’t look good as we are part of those who have to enforce the law, but how do you evict people without giving them proper notice?

Police not given proper notice

“There was never a proper notice, there was just a meeting at which we were informed that we needed to leave and we asked them where to go.

“They said they would allocate us a place but there was never a place allocated.”

The official also said it was not true that people had bypassed electricity at the barracks.

He believed it was an excuse used by senior police officials who were in charge of the evictions to remove them.

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Another police official who stayed at the barracks said members were forced to fetch water from outside the building or use the one operational tap on the 14th floor.

“If you have to use the toilet, you have to fetch water there,” the member said.

The official alleged the electricity had been turned off in an attempt to make residents leave, not because anyone had bypassed the electricity board.

“This is not healthy. It’s dark walking up the stairs at night and you have to have a phone to walk there.

“The lift also does not work, so for someone who stays on the 14th floor, they simply have to walk there,” said the source.

Police management’s approach wrong

Another resident at the barracks said management’s approach was wrong, as they had cut off the water and electricity to force the tenants out.

“We have had no electricity since last Friday and there is no water. The allegations that we have bypassed electricity are not true; this is just an excuse for them to get rid of us.”

“I can confirm there were people who were not police staying here but the police took them out and we only have police inside. All the illegal people are out.”

Nevhuhulwi said: “All legal requirements in terms of eviction processes will be followed.”