HUGE RATES AND SECURITY BILL FOR EMPTY KEMPTON PARK HOSPITAL

R5.6 million has been spent in the past four years for security and municipal charges for the derelict Kempton Park hospital which has been closed since December 1996.

This is revealed by Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

Every year the department pays R740 000 for security and R930 000 for rates and services by the Ekurhuleni Metro Council.

According to Mayathula-Khoza a detailed technical assessment has not yet been concluded with regard to the physical state of the building, nor has the property been valued.

She says that the future plan is for the hospital to be refurbished.

Former Health MEC Hope Papo said last year that the hospital would be reopened in 2017, but it seems to me that little will happen with this hospital in the near future.

Meanwhile, it continues to deteriorate and costs more money with security and municipal charges. It has become popular amongst teenager for ghost tours.

My view is that proposals should be called for a mixed use for the land and the various buildings on it, which include a nurses residence.

Part of the large property could even be sold off to help find a new development that could host both private and public providers of medical and other services.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, September 15 2014

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