How the law left the building

DIRANG LEKUNTWANE
Correspondent | Friday August 17, 2012 00:00

The old Mahalapye Police Station has become a haven for criminal elements since police officers here relocated to their new state-of-the-art office on the west side of the urban village early this year. A company contracted to renovate the old police houses has partially demolished the buildings, leaving a mess of bare electric wires that could pose danger to both adults and children who often play in the area. Some of the electric wires and plumbing materials seem to have been removed by criminals. The entire roofing and fence have been removed.

Some evidently use the area to relieve themselves whenever nature calls. Used condoms can also be found here.

In one of the partially destroyed houses, a stand pipe slowly leaks water. Cattle grazing nearby use the place to quench their thirst. The yard has a very beautiful garden with blossoms of purple and red roses.  In the old police reception area, papers, disposable plates and forks, alcohol bottles and drinking cans are strewn all over. In one room, what remains is a safe that kept exhibits.  In another office, there is a brown cupboard and a mounted air conditioner with broken locks. Here curtains are still hanging intact. In what appears to have been a radio room, pieces of machinery and cables lie abandoned. In the toilets, faeces fill the bowl.

At the far end, Room 1, the station manager's former office, has been cleared of everything, except for disposable plates and forks, faeces in a container, an old air conditioner, curtain rails and the old Chubb safe, registration 251/56 in the far left corner.  The former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) building at the back is awash with empty beer bottles and papers.

Inside one of the rooms, a white notice board still has some papers attached to it. One savinggram attached to the board relates to psychiatric assessment for murder suspects while the other is an Interpol facsimile.There is also a passage leading to holding cells. By the entrance is a door with three outside locks, a wired sieve for visitors to see suspects in custody.

Curiously, the 3m by 2m cells are clean. The cells have a wired window that appears to be the only source of ventilation. Also visible are insults written on doors and walls. In the next cell, that appeared to have been a women's cell, is an old grey blanket, a broken door and two bottles of water. In a storeroom here, a Status cologne, unused Lorato condoms and hair pins lie on the shelves. In the courtyard where suspects used to receive their food rations, a tomato plant stands ripe.

Mmegi has information to the effect that the Chines company was halted, pending the resolution of issues relating to the multi-million Pula tender for the project. The company is still on site with some of its machinery and loads of pit-sand, concrete, river sand, face bricks and door frames. 'Can't do anything. Must wait,' said a Chinese guard at the site In an interview with Mmegi recently, the Station Commander of Mahalapye Police Station, Superintendent Tawana Tawana was in the dark about developments at the old police station.

He said the contractor that built the new police station was given the responsibility to renovate the old police buildings, both the old police houses in the mall and the ones next to the old hospital. 'I have no precise answers regarding the renovations of the old police station but our development office in Gaborone is the one faced with the responsibility of such,' he said.

Thanks to the delay, Tawana's charges have resorted to using the office of the traffic department, opposite the main railway line, as a temporary solution to police the mall. Tshepo Keletso, a resident, urged government to accelerate the renovations programme, warning that any delay would only cause further harm. 'This should be done quickly because we need protection from the police. Those who sleep on the job must be held accountable for their blunder' he said.