‘Not fit for any person to work in’ – unsafe police headquarters in Pretoria shut

Toilets that were not working, fire extinguishers that had not been serviced since July 2022, dysfunctional ventilation equipment and sewage leaks are among the reasons the Department of Labour ordered the closure of the SA Police Service headquarters in Pretoria’s Telkom Towers North building.

‘Not fit for any person to work in’ – unsafe police headquarters in Pretoria shut

On Tuesday, 27 February, labour department officials, accompanied by police management and the Solidarity trade union, which represents some SAPS members, inspected the police’s Telkom Towers North building in Pretoria. The offices were declared unsafe and immediately shut down.

The closure of the 24-storey building comes days after the South African Air Force temporarily closed its headquarters in Pretoria. Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions caused by malfunctioning ventilation systems were cited as the cause.

According to national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, the Telkom Towers building in Pretoria’s CBD accommodates personnel attached to components whose mandate is to provide administrative support to operational divisions.

Arrangements, she said, were being made for these functions to be performed from alternative premises.

The Telkom Towers complex consists of 10 buildings measuring 221,954 square meters of lettable accommodation.

Renate Barnard, a representative from the trade union Solidarity, was part of the inspection.

“Every floor looked in a terrible state, unfit for any person to work in. Department of Labour inspectors made notes and took pictures of the terrible state under which SAPS management was working,” said Barnard on Thursday.

She expressed concern that the refurbished 24th floor – which was supposed to accommodate Police Minister Bheki Cele – was fitted with expensive office equipment, in stark contrast to the dilapidated state of the rest of the building.

Cele, she said, had not taken an office in the building.

Barnard went on to say that more than 900 people worked in the building that had been bought for R695-million in 2015 from the Telkom Retirement Fund, with another R200-million scheduled to be spent on renovations, with a completion date of 2026.

In May 2023, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala visited Telkom Towers. Zikalala said the purchase of the property was intended to provide suitable office space for the police, without hindering their work and operations.

Inhumane conditions

About 30 photos taken of the building this week depict the unsafe conditions, including toilets not working, fire extinguishers that had not been serviced since July 2022, dysfunctional ventilation equipment, sewage leaks, unused electrical boxes, plastic bags and empty food containers strewn on the floors, sections of ceilings missing and a conference room filled with rubbish.

Following the inspection, the Department of Labour ordered that no employees be allowed to occupy the building, that a survey be conducted to ensure compliance with workplace environmental regulations, and that SAPS obtain a certificate of approval from the City of Tshwane for the firefighting equipment.

The Department of Labour further discovered that the building lacked a valid certificate of occupancy.

Tip of the iceberg

Solidarity had expressed concerns about unsafe working conditions for SAPS staff at the Telkom Towers building in a letter dated 2 November 2023.

Solidarity said SAPS had breached the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993 by failing to ensure a safe working environment for its employees.

The trade union urged SAPS to take immediate action to address the situation and provide feedback within 30 days. SAPS did not respond, prompting the union to ask the Department of Labour to investigate.

According to Solidarity’s Barnard, disgruntled SAPS trade union members brought the issue of the unsafe environment to their attention.

“Union members asked us to intervene because the environment was deplorable. And because lifts were not always operational, police management at the building had to walk 22 floors up and down.”

Barnard said there was a “60-year-old senior officer working on the 22nd floor. This officer describes walking 22 flights of stairs every day as a nightmare. Members’ morale is at an all-time low”.

She said these issues should have been addressed much earlier and that they were only the tip of the iceberg.

“It is an unhealthy building… Many of our members have developed chronic illnesses as a result of poor ventilation and non-working toilets. We will also look into why the police minister did not take an office on the 24th floor. We are busy questioning the cost of refurbishing this office. It is a wasteful expenditure because the minister did not move in there,” she said.

On Thursday, Bethuel Nkuna, president of the Independent Policing Union of South Africa, expressed disappointment that the police’s Pretoria headquarters had been forced to close.

“This building has been dilapidated since complaints about flooding began in 2021. The building has been crumbling and it is concerning that another executive authority is forcing SAPS management to fix it.”

He said the building also housed the police’s legal team.

Nkuna questioned why SAPS waited until the Department of Labour declared the building unsafe before acting.

Well-being of employees

Following the closure of the building, a police management statement on Wednesday said that SAPS’ primary concern was the well-being and safety of its employees.

According to Mathe, it was on this basis that National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola instructed all personnel to vacate the premises.

“The SAPS is in continuous engagements with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure whose responsibility is the repair and maintenance of state facilities. Core policing has not been affected by this temporary closure,” she said.

Public Works spokesperson Lennox Mabaso did not respond to inquiries about the department’s plans for the problem building. DM