Durban court a ‘fire trap’

Durban — The 12-storey Durban Magistrate’s building on the corner of Somtseu Road and Stalwart Simelane Street, which is frequented by more than 4 000 people daily, is a death trap waiting to ignite.

A recent inquiry into the functionality of the building revealed numerous defects and health hazards at the site, including the fire department condemning the building on January 23, 2023, and instructed it be shut because the sprinkler system and water pressure valves did not work.

The fire department’s instructions remain ignored.

This maintenance issue was apparently raised with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure’s national office by their lieutenants in KwaZulu-Natal but no further action was taken, until it emerged at last month’s inquiry.

The inquiry was instituted, according to Section 342A of the Criminal Procedure Act, by the Acting Regional Court president, Magistrate Anand Maharaj.

Maharaj was presiding over a Regional Court murder matter on the 10th floor when he was informed that the accused person could not be moved from the prisoners’ grill on the ground floor due to the designated lift being out of order.

It led to the discovery of a “plethora of infrastructure issues” experienced at the building that impacted negatively on the rate at which the wheels of justice turned at the courthouse.

Maharaj actioned an inquiry.

S342A provided the basis for the court to probe whether the delay in proceedings was unreasonable, who must carry the blame, its effects and the impact on justice administration.

The act permits the court to issue “any order’ to eliminate the delay, arising prejudice and its perpetuation.

It directs an administrative investigation and possible disciplinary action against the people responsible for the delays and solutions to be found.

The inquiry from June 6 to 12 for evidence gathering and Maharaj delivered his ruling on June 28.

Kritish Prag, the current court manager, gave a detailed account of the issues at the building.

Prag said they had challenges with the prisoners’ lifts for a few months. It broke down 17 times from March 6 to June 2024, causing delays in various matters, including high court sittings on the 12th floor.

Parts from other lifts in the building had to be used in order to make the prisoners’ lifts operational.

The previous lift service provider’s contract ended in February.

Parts cannot be accessed and the new contractor was unsure whether the lifts could be fixed because of this.

The old contractor advised that major parts had to be sourced from overseas.

Prag highlighted the lifts and other challenges in an email to the regional head of public works and the department of justice.

He indicated that they had an agreement with public works that all major parts for the lifts will be changed two years ago to ensure safety for users, but this was not honoured to date.

“Prisoners cannot be taken to court due to security risks and cases have to be adjourned.”

Prag said that copper pipes were stolen from five floors in the building in February, public works was notified and repairs were only completed in May. People on the affected floors were without water and functioning toilets.

Another challenge Prag mentioned was the number of times concrete and window frames had fallen from the building. Once, a window frame fell onto a parked motor vehicle and caused extensive damage.

He testified that water flooded the grills housing prisoners but the exact cause is yet to be determined, pumps were not working and the burst water pipes impacted the functioning of lifts.

“The fire-line in the building was switched off on 23 January 2023. The fire department conducted an investigation and gave public works two days to fix the fire-line.

“Nothing has been done since.”

He said the fire department also noticed that the emergency lighting in stairwells did not work.

The SAPS’ Captain Gonam Govender, who has been the “grill commander” at the building for 30 years testified that prisoners’ lifts issues were long running, but it had become “extreme” in the past two years, with only one lift in operation to move an average of 160 prisoners daily.

“The lift breaks down about seven times a day. Police are not authorised to take prisoners in public lifts or use stairwells. When lifts break down, police are trapped with prisoners.”

Govender said there were no reporting mechanisms in the lifts in emergencies, the lights did not work and the installed CCTV was not working for the past three years.

She said plumbing issues in the prisoners toilets created health and safety challenges.

The public works’ regional manager also testified and compiled an “action plan” to solve the building’s problems, which he handed to the court.

He said much of the issues amounted to a “capital project” and they were due for renovation and repair.

The manager said the process to get a budget allocated to address the problems was a “long-winded process”.

He said the lift issue was a capital project and they needed to be completely replaced as parts could not be sourced presently.

Pipes at the building needed to be replaced because they were corroded and the process to modernise the building has been prioritised.

The high water table at the building caused the flooding of pumps and there was nothing that could be done at this point.

Fixing the sprinkler system required finances and he wrote about it to their head office multiple times.

He conceded that the “fire problem” was not an ideal situation and has put pressure on his superiors to fix the problem, and the lifts have been an issue for the past year and a half.

He told Maharaj that he only drew up the action plan after he was subpoenaed to attend the inquiry and that a time frame of December 31, 2024, was “fair” to have the building fixed.

Maharaj said: “It is abundantly clear from the evidence that the department of public works failed in its responsibility to fix the issues raised.”

He noted that the regional manager previously ignored meetings with Prag and Govender to resolve the building’s issues.

“The delays in my view are unreasonably occasioned by the lack of commitment from public works.”

“The building is unsafe and a fire trap which poses a huge risk for users.

“This also applies to all the lifts in the building. Clearly one cannot say the lack of money is an impediment when the lives of people are at risk. It beggars belief.”

Maharaj said the “responsibility and shortcomings” lay at the feet of the regional manager.

“Given that there is some effort to want to get the building fixed, although not at the pace that is required, I have decided not to order disciplinary steps against him or other officials in light of the repairs that were promised.”

Maharaj also recommended that in future the office of the Chief Justice be capacitated to accommodate repairs, renovation and building courthouses, which prevent the present situation where those responsibilities were split between the DPWI and DoJ.

The department’s spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said: “We are studying the judgement and commit to develop a turnaround plan, as we are committed to enhance access to justice by providing habitable building.”

Sunday Tribune