ActionSA Calls on Hawks to Investigate the Incomplete Vuwani Police Station
Victor Mothemela
ActionSA Limpopo Provincial Chairperson
As ActionSA Launches Nationwide Campaign to Share Solutions to End Crime and Corruption in South Africa, I am reminded of the neglected community of Vuwani where construction of the only police station in the area, started in 2012 is yet to be finished 12 years after the Police Station was commissioned.
A project which initially was meant to cost the Department of Public Works R27million has now cost the department over R40million which was paid to two incompetent contractors, with a third contractor now appointed at an estimated cost of R26.9 million.
Vuwani which is widely known for high crime rates and violent service delivery protests, has 125 police officers, who service about 96 villages is in desperate need of an all-round well-resourced police station with inadequate office space and holding cells to proactively prevent and respond to crime. A further delay in completing the police station will undermine law enforcement agencies’ ability to keep crime levels low and restore the Rule of Law in this volatile area.
Much like the Giyani Water Project, the Vuwani Police Station reveals the scale of corruption that continues to go unabated in this province, with self-serving politicians using well-meaning projects as channels to loot state coffers, leaving the most vulnerable communities without essential services.
It is for this reason that we will write to the Hawks Special Investigating Unit to launch an investigation to determine if there were procurement irregularities and if officials had unduly benefitted from the project. Under an ActionSA government we will ensure that the contractors who were never held liable for their incompetence and waste of state resources, are excluded from all future procurement.
It is only ActionSA that can re-establish a culture of accountability that will restore institutional trust. The rot is too deep and can only be fixed by a credible alternative that promises practical solutions that will end the corruption that has overwhelmed our public service and restore the rule of law.
ActionSA Calls on Hawks to Investigate the Incomplete Vuwani Police Station
As ActionSA Launches Nationwide Campaign to Share Solutions to End Crime and Corruption in South Africa, I am reminded of the neglected community of Vuwani where construction of the only police station in the area, started in 2012 is yet to be finished 12 years after the Police Station was commissioned.
A project which initially was meant to cost the Department of Public Works R27million has now cost the department over R40million which was paid to two incompetent contractors, with a third contractor now appointed at an estimated cost of R26.9 million.
Vuwani which is widely known for high crime rates and violent service delivery protests, has 125 police officers, who service about 96 villages is in desperate need of an all-round well-resourced police station with inadequate office space and holding cells to proactively prevent and respond to crime. A further delay in completing the police station will undermine law enforcement agencies’ ability to keep crime levels low and restore the Rule of Law in this volatile area.
Much like the Giyani Water Project, the Vuwani Police Station reveals the scale of corruption that continues to go unabated in this province, with self-serving politicians using well-meaning projects as channels to loot state coffers, leaving the most vulnerable communities without essential services.
It is for this reason that we will write to the Hawks Special Investigating Unit to launch an investigation to determine if there were procurement irregularities and if officials had unduly benefitted from the project. Under an ActionSA government we will ensure that the contractors who were never held liable for their incompetence and waste of state resources, are excluded from all future procurement.
It is only ActionSA that can re-establish a culture of accountability that will restore institutional trust. The rot is too deep and can only be fixed by a credible alternative that promises practical solutions that will end the corruption that has overwhelmed our public service and restore the rule of law.