Cape Town – More than a year after the abandoned GF Jooste Hospital was badly vandalised, nothing has changed, with the building regularly targeted despite the permanent presence of security guards.
It was reported in 2015 that the security guards had to protect the building against armed criminals.
The Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW), the custodian of the site, was also no closer to knowing what the future held in store for the land and the hospital building.
Manenberg Safety Forum chairperson Roegchanda Pascoe said the community felt the hospital could be used for other things to benefit the residents.
She said the building had turned into a haven for drug addicts who continued to vandalise what was left of the building.
“The building looks terrible after the vandalism, the drug addicts are tearing it apart, it doesn’t have a roof anymore. Soon the walls are going to fall,” she said.
Pascoe said the government was allowing the vandalism.
She said they had complained and wanted to utilise the building for something else while the plan for the future of the building was finalised.
She said the plan for the building needed to be communicated with the community.
Community Policing Forum chairperson Kader Jacobs said he has been to the site recently and saw that the vandalism was continuing.
Jacobs said it was worse before the security company was changed.
“We were concerned that the security guards may have allowed vandals to come in,” said Jacobs.
He said there were talks of the site being turned into a training facility for metro police, which would have been a good thing because it would help fight crime in the area.
However, he said the CPF would love to see another hospital built on the site because poor and old people had to travel far to get access to health services.
MEC of Health Nomafrench Mbombo said the research done before the closing of the hospital showed the hospital was too small to have other medical operations performed.
DTPW spokesperson Byron la Hoe said: “The department is planning on securing the site by erecting fences and lighting. Securing the site and improving safety measures on site will require a mandatory procurement process.”
He added that no immediate decision had been made by relevant authorities on the future development of the site.
He said given the climate in the Manenberg area, security guards feared for their lives.