POLOKWANE – The shameful state of a structure initially built to provide a trading space for hawkers in Polokwane, has compelled the municipality to find an alternative way to put it to good use.
After nine years, the white elephant in Market Street has become a place of nightly shelter for the homeless and criminal elements.
Municipal spokesperson Thipa Selala said they were awaiting council to consider redirecting the facility into an arts and craft hub, as a management model.
This means all fundamentals would only be discussed based on council giving the green light to the proposal.
The project was handed over to the contractor on October 28, 2009, for implementation but the scope could not be completed due to a lack of manpower and financial capacity, and was eventually terminated.
“The new contractor was appointed in September 2012. The site was handed over on October 1, 2012. Construction was completed on March 4, 2013,” he added.
The aim of the building at first was to support hawkers and their enterprises by building stalls.
Information supplied by the municipality about the worth of the market revealed that the contractor was appointed at an amount in excess of over R15m, with the amount inclusive of professional fees amounting to R18m.
Street sellers continue to pay for licensing permits as per standards of the Polokwane by-laws despite the uncomfortable circumstances of selling in the streets and in front of shopping outlets, where it is considered illegal in some streets.
Despite the hazardous health and safety risk the infrastructure poses based on how easy it is to hub criminal elements on it, the municipality says it upholds its responsibility to safeguard it nonetheless.
”As such, security officers are deployed to the facility to manage and deal with potential hazards,” it concluded.
