Deputy General Secretary of Public Industry at Solidarity, Helgard Cronjé, says the poor condition of the police national head office building at Telkom Towers in Pretoria shows that the SAPS does not care about its employees’ safety.
Yesterday, National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola ordered an immediate evacuation of all personnel from the building, citing safety concerns.
The building was bought by SAPS eight years ago and renovated for nearly R900 million.
Cronjé says the state of the building is appalling.
“It seems as though the police want to make it seem as if it’s not important, but at the end of the day, I think it is important for SAPS morale. After this building has been closed without a lot of inquiries from other SAPS members, other divisions and other parts of the country complaining [about] the same thing.”
“So this is a very important thing that has happened. A lot of money was spent on the offices of the National Commissioner and the Minister [Bheki Cele] at this specific Telkom towers building, but yet for other employees, it’s not safe to work there,” adds Cronjé.
Below is the full interview
