During a recent Volunteers24 outreach to the Hout Bay Seals Rescue Centre (HBSRC) in February imminent danger of metal sheets falling from the old ice plant standing above the centre was abundantly clear.
It raised questions about life-threatening health and safety hazards on local ocean fronts.
Located at lot 25 and 57 of Hout Bay Harbour, the HBSRC’s maintenance manager Phil Klein pointed to the chilling derelict building overarching a large area of its premises’ walking surface along the harbour.
“If someone were to stand underneath the ice plant and one of those sheets came falling down it will certainly mean someone’s death or, at the very least, a freak accident that could claim limbs,” he forewarned.
Klein added, that considering Hout Bay’s average of 40 km/h daily winds, eroded, increasing materials falling from the old plant’s abandoned structure is merely a matter of time.
The extreme danger this poses is not only to HBSRC’s premises but the Cape fur seals they care for, their staff and other passers-by who frequent that end of the harbour.
Custodianship of the harbour
Prior to the harbour coming into the custodianship of the Department of Public Works (DPW), Oceana Group (a global fishing and food processing company) permitted HBSRC’s predecessor Seal Alert to operate at Lot 25 and 57 under a 99-year lease.
The deterioration of the building has been reportedly raised with the department on numerous occasions starting as early as 4 July last year. To date, the centre says it has not yet received any feedback from the department.
Ward 74 councillor Roberto Quintas, however, said this building, like many others, has become a white elephant and an absolute danger to the public due to neglect and mismanagement by the National Department of Public Works & Infrastructure over the years.
“The uncertainty about the security of tenure due to murky and mysterious processes of renewal and future vision of the harbour has forced some tenants to leave, and others to understandably hesitate on maintenance and improvements,” he argued.
Quintas told People’s Post he firmly maintained that management of small boat harbours should be decentralised from the national government to local authorities “who are close to the ground, know the needs of communities and who understand the potential of this job creating economic catalytic spaces is the only solution to the problem we see so evidently in front of us.”
The City of Cape Town was also approached for insight into the issue of public derelict buildings, to which the spokesperson for Law Enforcement Wayne Dyason said compliance with all relevant safety legislation is the responsibility of a building owner, in this case, the DPW.
“There are various departments within the City tasked with monitoring for building/property compliance, and we, therefore, encourage members of the public to report any concerns to the City – either via our Corporate Call Centre or via our online C3 notification/service request platform, so that the matter can be formally investigated,” Dyason additionally noted.
People’s Post sent enquiries to the DPW regarding the derelict state of the old ice plant.
However, no feedback had been received at the time of going to print.
