Cape Town – Temporary scaffolding used as staircases at council houses since the start of the year is threatening the safety of tenants, residents say.
Fareed Phillips, Manenberg resident and secretary-general of the Manenberg Business Forum, said the structures currently erected at about four locations were unsafe.
“The buildings in the area are as old as Manenberg, which is around 50 years old. Lots of things need replacing.
“Currently there are scaffolding structures in place which should not have been up for so long.
"But because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this has now been delayed and the fact is, it’s unsafe.
Fadiel Adams, of action group Gatvol Capetonian and the Cape Coloured Congress, has slammed the City for “negligence” and said that it was not treating the replacement of the structures as a priority.
“This is criminal negligence on the City’s part. They have shifted budgets around for everything except this. The situation has now spiralled beyond being an emergency.
“These staircases were all built around the same time and it is just a matter of time before thousands more staircases join the queue to be replaced as it is just not safe,” said Adams.
In a scathing social media post, Adams said “almost two years ago the DA-run City of Cape Town’s own engineer condemned 149 staircases on the Cape Flats as ailing and critical. In layman’s terms, it’s bound to collapse in the near future”.
He added that four staircases were currently in the process of being repaired.
“The DA-run City of Cape Town has since turned a blind eye to the staircases that will collapse, endangering our people in the process, preferring to divert emergency funds to non-essential projects such as painting and repairing roads in affluent areas.”
City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said there was a backlog for repair work to staircases in Hout Bay, Atlantis, Scottsdene, Macassar, Lwandle, Hanover Park, Elsies River, Parkwood, Heideveld, Retreat and Lavender Hill.
“All City-owned CRUs (Council Rented Units) undergo regular upgrades and maintenance within resources. Since March 2020, the City’s Human Settlements Directorate has started investing R146 million into Phase 1 of its upgrading and replacing of precast staircases programme.
“Since the 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years, approximately 969 old precast staircases at its multi-storey rental units across the metro have been identified to be upgraded or replaced to ensure the safety of our tenants when accessing their rental homes,” said Tyhalibongo.
Emergency repair work would receive priority following a backlog due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tyhalibongo said.
Cape Times