The true pain of faulty buildings

Mmegi Editor | Friday September 19, 2014 14:37

By yesterday the death toll stood at 80, with rescue workers still busy searching for possible survivors from under the rubble.

Despite this harrowing incident, SCOAN as an international church that attracts multitudes from across the globe seems reluctant to communicate with the outside world on the rescue operations that are ongoing.

This is yet another example of how we as Africans choose not to move with progress when other nations are going forward. 

In other countries, a tragedy like this would have prompted authorities, or the concerned organisation to put in place communication structures.

This disaster reminds us that we could be sitting on a time bomb as a result of poorly built structures that occupy a lot of space in our capital city.

At Kgale Mews, there is a government office that has been unoccupied since 2005 due to serious structural flaws.  It is reported that passing vehicles are capable of causing tremors on the building, and therefore the structure could at any time collapse on unsuspecting members of the public. At the Government Enclave, an office within the Labour and Home Affairs ministry reportedly flooded earlier this month, after a ceiling collapsed.  The water damaged visas and permits, resulting in delays in responses to foreign applicants.

There are other buildings, which have been declared unsafe, but the Ministry of Lands and Housing has not exercised its powers to demolish them and erect new ones.  There was also a tremor recently, which may be followed by a heavy earthquake in the not-so-distant future as the South African metrological services through the media had reported.  Should this happen as predicted it could prove catastrophic for unwary Batswana.  Millions of Pula have been spent purchasing these buildings and some of the departments earmarked to occupy them have subsequently spent millions more on rental elsewhere.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry is one such office in question.  The ministry was set to occupy the Kgale Mews office, but backed out of the move probably because an eagle-eyed employee noticed cracks where there should have been none.

Today, the trade ministry occupies expansive, airy and exquisite offices in the Central Business District, being symbolic of the imprudent property purchases inflicted upon the taxpayer.

We reiterate the call recently made by members of the Public Accounts Committee that ministries of Lands and Housing, and that of Infrastructure, Science and Technology desperately need to get their act together.

 

                                                                    Today’s thought

                       “Restoring responsibility and accountability is essential to the economic and fiscal health of our nation.”

 

                                                                   - Carl Levin