The DA and Central Durban residents are encouraged by Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson’s visit this week to problematic and abandoned buildings, including the Excelsior Court building which initially housed police officers but was then abandoned. He was joined by eThekwini Deputy Mayor, Zandile Myeni, DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, and Councillors Remona McKenzie and Sharmaine Sewsanker.
Since 2013 the DA has been fighting to have the issue of the building addressed, including our former Public Works MPs taking up the issue with the former departmental Ministers as well as site visits by four Shadow Ministers.
We now finally have a proactive Public Works Minister who immediately arrived, inspected the building, and gave the community assurances that the Excelsior Court building would be cleared of invaders, secured, guarded and have its future determined.
The ongoing loud banging and stripping of materials from the building by vagrants has got to that point where the community pooled funds to brick-off the building’s entrance.
The building is today a slum building. Drugs are sold openly despite sporadic police raids. In 2022 we reported the claims that individuals linked to various police members, were renting out the flats.
In response Minister Macpherson stated that it is not the job of residents to protect themselves and their properties from Public Works buildings that had become a blight on various neighbourhoods.
The Minister went on to inspect another massive abandoned SAPS block, near the Magistrate’s Courts, which has stood empty for many years, despite the fact that the SAPS head office is rented at enormous expense a short distance away.
Moving to the Magistrate’s Courts building, the group heard that the specialised lifts that transport detainees up to the courts broke down regularly, resulting in many delayed cases.
The reality is hundreds of millions of Rands are needed to upgrade these buildings, and we are encouraged by the Minister’s indication that these will form part of priority projects.
Minister Macpherson’s visit has restored a sense of optimism that the wheels are turning and that at last these myriad of issues are going to be dealt with.