The abandonment of Germond�s government owned house
Sandy Grant | Wednesday October 18, 2017 13:58
All I know about this house is that it was occupied by JDA Germond presumably during his entire tenure as Divisional Commissioner South between 1954 and 1961. The assumption would be therefore that the house was specially built for him. So far so good. But this is when the problems begin.
It seems that no one was appointed to succeed him when seemingly he retired in 1961 and left the country. Why was this particular post a one-off? If it was justified to create such a post in 1954 why was it no longer justified in 1961? But if the post was frozen, why did the British Administration - Peter Fawcus - fail to designate it for someone else use? The house, very large and very attractive as was appropriate for someone of Germond’s rank, is long abandoned. But when was it first abandoned? And by the British or by the newly independent government? The question is not frivolous because it is of some importance to know why either or both concluded that it had no use for this very fine building. For the usually parsimonious British, it would have been extraordinary to invest so much in this building, use it for just a few years and then chuck it away. But then it is similarly surprising that after 1966, the new government also appears to have had no use for it even though it was desperately short of housing not least for High Court judges.
Why was a new house built at significant cost for the Chief Justice when this handsome building was on hand and available? When I had a look at this building a few years ago, it was being used as a dumping place to store decrepit government furniture - a sad way of using this very fine building. Presumably it is still providing this downgraded service. Was a deliberate decision ever made by the government, I wonder, to abandon the building or is it something that, some time ago, got lost in the bureaucratic maze from which it can no longer be extricated?
The house could have been used in a number of different ways, to provide a varied service and be of value to, not least the Town Council. Instead the government, incomprehensibly, prefers to deny its use to anyone else and thus to throw away this very real asset. Maybe when the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) decides that it needs an office in Lobatse, if it hasn’t already got one, the problems posed by an inert bureaucracy will suddenly fall away! On the other hand, it may be that it is generally understood that this is a spook house which might persuade even the DIS to back away!