Security measures at Nelson Mandela Bay libraries are being upgraded in an attempt to curb the ongoing vandalism and invasion which lead to the damage of municipal assets.
During a recent oversight visit to the Newton Park Library, the metro’s MMC for sport, recreation, arts and culture, Helga van Staaden, called on communities to take ownership of public facilities and report vandalism, as work to repair some of the vandalised libraries had started.
According to Van Staaden, the fencing project at this library started a little more than a week ago and they are anticipating the work to be completed this week.
“I am quite happy with the progress we have made so far at the Newton Park library. It comes at a cost of R1,2 million and is part of our anti-vandalism strategy with the plans put in place by the anti-vandalism steering committee to secure our facilities,” Van Staaden explained.
“We all know that our facilities have been vandalised. I’m happy that we are implementing what we have decided and furthermore, we will see the budget availability and what other work we can do to upgrade our facilities.”
She added that during the current financial year, the metro had also fenced the badly vandalised Chatty Library, to pave a way for refurbishment work that needs to be done at this facility. The fencing of Chatty Library amounted to a cost of R1 million.
“We have to ask our residents to keep an eye on these buildings. They are public facilities and meant for everybody. If you see anything sinister happening, please inform our police,” she said.
“Vandalism has been so bad at the Chatty Library that the roof alone will cost us more than R500 000 to fix. The Allanridge Library can’t even be used; it is locked up.
“This comes at a disadvantage. These criminals don’t even consider that these are community facilities and the vandalism is a disadvantage to our children,” Van Staaden added.
Responding to the work underway at the Newton Park Library, Ward 7 Councillor, René Meyer, said that the upgraded security would ensure the safety of residents.
“I think the community will be happy about this work taking place. This library has had a problem with vagrants that tend to sleep here and some illegal dumping that takes place within the grounds. Having the new fence up will thus prevent that from happening, which in turn will make it safe for the community to come and use this library again.”
