Question NW627 to the Minister of Home Affairs
29 March 2023 - NW627
Roos, Mr AC to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
With regard to the collapse of the ceiling at the Byron Place Home Affairs office in February 2023, what (a) is the maintenance arrangement with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and the owners of the specified office building to ensure that offices of his department are safe workspaces and (b) systems are in place for tracking maintenance-related complaints submitted by the Home Affairs offices?
Reply:
a) n terms of clause 11.2 (read with clauses 13.1 and 13.2) of the Lease Agreement between the Department of Public Works and the landlord, the landlord at Byron’s Place is responsible for the normal maintenance and repairs of both the interior and exterior of the premises. To this end, the landlord carries out inter alia the following maintenance, repairs and servicing, at the following intervals:
- Maintenance, repairs and servicing of all air-conditioning units (monthly);
- Maintenance, repairs and servicing of the generator (annually);
- Servicing of the electrical transformer (annually);
- Infra-red testing of all the DB boards (annually);
- Inspect, clean, test and maintain all the DB boards (annually);
- Maintain and inspect all electrical equipment (monthly);
- Lighting inspection (weekly);
- Annual Service - extinguishers, hose reels & hydrants (annually);
- Servicing of lifts (monthly)
- Annexure B inspection of lifts (once every two years);
- Cleaning of common areas (daily);
- Pest control (monthly).
The ceiling on the ground floor of the office at Byron Place, corner of Nana Sita and Sophie de Bruyn streets collapsed during the afternoon of Thursday, 16 February 2023. As a result, services at this office were interrupted on Friday, 17 February 2023. The Office Manager immediately informed the landlord (Zambli 216 (Pty) Ltd) of the damages. The ceiling was repaired by the landlord over the weekend of 18 and 19 February 2023 and the office resumed operations on Monday, 20 February 2023.
b) Maintenance-related complaints regarding leased properties are managed at office level. Office managers have been provided with the contact details of their respective landlords. The office manager will first report the maintenance matter directly to the landlord and should there be no resolution, the matter is then escalated to Property Management at Head office who in turn escalates to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. Maintenance matters escalated to the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure are tracked via an EXCELL Spreadsheet where all matters are recorded.
END