“Trailer park homes” in the Northern Cape town of Postmasburg, apparently declared unsafe over 10 years ago, raised the ire of a local councillor who wants the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to “attend to derelict military accommodation”.
Postmasburg is part of Tsantsabane Local Municipality which includes the SA Army Combat Training Centre (CTC) at Lohathla 34 km away. The 158 000 hectare CTC hosts, among others, the annual SA Army capability and readiness exercise Vuk’uhlome, which sees an influx of troops supported by maintenance, logistic and medical units. Personnel from these units are housed both at CTC and in houses and “temporary park homes” declared uninhabitable over a decade ago in Postmasburg, according to Councillor James Boucher.
His unhappiness over the accommodation in the town’s Postdene suburb saw an oversight visit earlier this month confirm the temporary accommodation was still in place. Boucher maintains it is the SANDF’s duty to remove the trailer park homes and provide alternate accommodation for its personnel. This was given further weight by way of a Parliamentary question as far back as last October. Questioner Carl Niehaus (Economic Freedom Fighters) wanted to know from Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga whether an inquest docket was opened following two deaths in the temporary military Postdene accommodation in May last year, apparently caused by electrical faults. He was told “yes” and that it is ongoing. The first fire destroyed an unoccupied park home while the second claimed the lives of the wife and daughter of a sergeant, stationed at Lohatlha.
Boucher maintains the national defence force has “done nothing to maintain and secure its rundown brick homes which are still accommodating people”. The empty brick homes are being vandalised and stripped, with windows and burglar bars broken, ceilings missing and cupboards and taps stripped. Residents, according to him in a statement, are too scared to leave their homes “for fear of them being emptied out by vagrants and drug users, who are making use of the vacant homes”.
“The grounds are also unmaintained, with grass knee-high. The fencing around the property is broken and the entrance gate hangs from a hinge,” Boucher added.
Additionally he puts blame for non-maintenance of “empty erfs the SANDF leases from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI)” on the SANDF “tacitly relinquishing responsibility,” creating an eyesore.
The matter has been referred to Ofentse Mokae, DA Member of the Select Committee on Security and Justice, to take up with the Minister of Defence during the next question and answer session. The SANDF must reclaim its properties and its place as the pride of Postmasburg, Boucher concluded.
The Department of Defence (DoD) Works Formation, with units in each of South Africa’s nine provinces, is tasked with upkeep of building and facility maintenance where the SANDF is the occupant. The formation has its roots in an SA Army Works Regiment established by former landward force chief Solly Shoke, later to become SANDF Chief in the wake of DPWI not providing satisfactory maintenance to buildings and facilities used by the air force, army, military health and navy.
