Helen Zille and other Democratic Alliance representatives were prevented from conducting an oversight visit to Johannesburg’s abandoned Metro Centre building on Thursday, with security guards allegedly detaining them after forcing them to leave the premises.
The opposition party said its councillors, a Member of Parliament and Zille arrived at the former administrative heart of the City to assess the building’s condition and determine where residents’ building plans and other sensitive records are currently being stored.
Upon entering through an open ground floor gate, the elected public representatives were reportedly chased by security guards who prevented them from carrying out the inspection. When the DA team exited the building, security personnel blocked them from leaving the premises whilst summoning the Metro Police Department.
The DA described this as forced detention without lawful basis and questioned what the ANC-EFF-PA-Al Jama-ah-ActionSA-AIC coalition government is attempting to conceal.
Former DA Economic Development MMC, Leah Potgieter, previously confirmed with engineers that the Metro Centre building is structurally sound. Despite this assessment, the current administration has evacuated the building and is renting office space, costing the City tens of millions of rand.
Meanwhile, the coalition government is pursuing plans to demolish the existing building and construct a new Metro Centre at an estimated cost exceeding R2 billion, with a projected construction timeline of up to 10 years.
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The DA said it will continue to pursue available avenues to uncover information about the Metro Centre, including the handling of sensitive records, the justification for relocation costs, and the rationale for the proposed demolition and rebuild.
The party has demanded immediate answers and full disclosure from the City of Johannesburg as the municipality prepares to table its new financial year budget.
The City of Johannesburg had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
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