‘All talk, no action’

A year and three months after the abandoned Springbok Pub in Newlands burnt down, residents again expressed their frustration at the lack of action taken to address the eyesore.

The converted train carriage went up in flames on Monday 5 October 2020.

Mere days after the fire, Prasa said it intended to demolish the premises but to date, nothing has been done. What followed instead was the further deterioration of the site as vandalism took its toll. Hopes that a petition, signed by residents and handed over to Prasa on Wednesday 28 July last year, would get the ball rolling also came to naught when a commitment made by Prasa to “get something going” within two months of the handover went unmet.

When the deadline did come around, a cohort of southern suburbs ward councillors and then DA ward candidates met on-site with Prasa representatives “to add more pressure to get things moving”.

Local resident Lesley Godfrey says she was appalled at the conditions at the derelict pub when she drove past there last month.

Referring to the articles which have gone before in People’s Post, she says it has been months and still no sign of action.

“Does ‘try to get something going’ equal ‘let’s stall’? All talk and no action?”

Besides Prasa, Godfrey also turns her ire on the ward councillors and the then DA ward candidates present at the site meeting in October last year.

“Is it possible that all these ward councillors are incapable of getting ‘something going’ in over four months? I wonder if more urgent action would be taken if any one of these gentlemen had to commute daily by train on the southern line, or walk past this squalor on the way to the Newlands Railway Station,” she asks.

Godfrey says she sees it as both a health risk and a safety issue.

“Alongside this heap of filth and rubble is the Life Sports Science Orthopaedic Surgical Day Centre. Hardly a hygienic environment for this facility.”

She adds that an up-and-over bridge is also being built over the railway line alongside the day hospital to gain access to the new upmarket accommodation development that is part of the Newlands Cricket grounds complex.

“I wonder how pleased these owners and residents will be when they move in and look down onto this absolute eyesore of a dump?” Godfrey asks.

Last year October, People’s Post was told that the reason for the delay was because Prasa had since discovered that fencing, stretching over 700 metres, would be needed to secure the railway reserve at the station once the building was demolished or boarded up.

This would require involving other stakeholders and sourcing the funds needed to pay for the fencing.

Two weeks ago, Nana Zenani, the acting head of department for marketing, communications and stakeholder relations for Prasa, told People’s Post that there had been a request for quotes (RFQ) sent out at the end of last year.

“The contractor will be appointed shortly after all key verifications have been done as part of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The contractor will be appointed shortly. He has to then give confirmation of acceptance and so on. Once we get these confirmations, we will proceed with the project,” said Zenani.

Mikhail Manuel, councillor for Ward 59, says he and Prasa have set up a monthly meeting to address the list of issues across the section of the southern line that falls in Ward 59.

Manuel says they have agreed to address four issues per monthly meeting.

The four issues discussed at the meeting held last month included the derelict pub, the fence line that needs to be replaced at White Road in Rondebosch, a tree that needs to be trimmed close to Rondebosch Station (which is compromising the security of a residential complex) and the illegal occupation by street people of Prasa property at Harfield Railway Station.