Monday, 24 June 2002
"From the ashes and ruins of the station rose a project that lead to job creation, public private partnership, black empowerment and skills development"
In an event filled with emotions and joy, the National Minister of Transport, Abdulah M. Omar today opened the doors of Pretoria station to the people. The station was maliciously burned and vandalised by commuters on February 19, 2002. The station was restored to its pride at a cost of R20.Million.
The Minister said the burning of the station did not achieve better service, but hindered the flow of rail services in Tshwane. "Arson, violence and vandalism are not the way to raise commuter problems, they are enough institutions and forums to address commuter problems," He said.
The Minister added that commuters needed to take ownership of stations, nurture them and protect them. "Government property is your property, this is your station, it was your station on 19 February last year when some people thought it necessary to destroy it. We must stand up and finger this people, we must prevent anyone from stealing from us in any way" He said. The restoring of the station is part of the on going commitment by government to improve the quality of public passenger transport and improving for better rail transport in South Africa. "Government is committed to ensuring that commuters enjoy their journey from work, school and hospitals," He said.
In line with the station history of being a national monument every material used was designed to ensure that the station is restored in the true sense of the word to its historic form that made it a monument of art and design in South Africa. "Building of this nature are part of our national heritage, our future generations will stand proud of this pride of our nation" Minister Omar said.
The launch was attended by members of community forums, the Executive Mayor of Tshwane: Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, MEC of Transport in Gauteng, Khabisi Mosunkutu, Chairman of the South African Commuter Corporation , Eddie Lekota, Acting CEO of SARCC, Ben van der Ross, Managing Director, Intersite Property Management Services: Jack Prentice and CEO of Metrorail: Honey Mateya.
Issued in Pretoria by
Ndivhuwo Mabaya
Acting HEAD Media Relations and Corporate Communications
Cell: 082 889 2545
Tel: 012 309 3500
Background Information
"Restoring Pretoria station to its national Pride"
"From ashes and ruins rose a project that created jobs, economic empowerment, skills development and remained the pride of the nation"
The fire that was started in a services centre on the ground floor of the main Station building spread high and fast that evening. Almost 100% of the roof was destroyed and the clock tower and clock were severely damaged. The facilities inside the services centre were completely gutted and a vast amount of water and smoke damage was incurred in the offices on the first and second floors.
The elevator had to be replaced and the floor inside the Station's ground floor had to be lifted, as the sandstone tiles were effectively baked by the fire, making them brittle and easily broken. Finally, the walls on both the inside and the outside had to be restored after suffering heat and smoke damage.
However, the building was designed to withstand fire damage. Whereas a more modern building might not have survived, the Station was protected from complete destruction by a concrete slab in the roof, intended for this purpose, that prevented the fire from spreading to the office floors. As a result, the task of restoring the building was attainable, if challenging.
One of the immediate tasks was to identify and preserve any fittings that could still be used and examples of items that would need to be replicated. These included window catches, gutters, special moulds, etc.
A professional team was immediately appointed and the main contractors, Fikile-Stocks, were appointed by mid June 2001. Under strict guidelines from the South African Heritage Association, the task of restoring the 90-year old building to its former glory commenced.
In line with the empowerment goals of the SARCC and Intersite, the main contractor was an equal partnership joint venture between Stocks Building Africa and Fikile Construction, a 100% Black owned company. Spread beyond simply economic empowerment and job creation to a high level of unique skills development.
In addition, Intersite and the restoration team had the opportunity to reinstate a kiosk inside the Station that had been torn down years ago for operational reasons and to improve access control and ticketing systems in the Station. Workers were also able to properly get onto the clock tower for first time in many years where they cleaned the copper copula, replaced the weather vein that fell off some years back and replace the clock mechanism.
Sub-contractors were also tasked with manufacturing replicas of many of the destroyed items. These included the red roof tiles, which had to be custom-made for the job, and the wooded beams, which were made from specially treated local pine, replacing the Baltic Deal used by Baker which would have had to be imported from Europe.
The Minister thanked and praised the professionals and companies involved for a job well done. "From the ashes and ruins of the Station rose a project which brought opportunity for the Department of Transport, through its agency the South African Rail Commuter Corporation, to fulfill its commitment to the national goals of job creation, public private partnerships, black economic empowerment and skills development," he said.
Metrorail services will now be back to full operations from Pretoria Station with the first trains running from peak hour today. For the past sixteen months, commuters have been rerouted to the nearby Bosman, Station, the facility built for use by Blacks during the years of segregation.
Construction work will continue at the Station for some months still, as new facilities for Spoornet's Shosholoza Meyl are being built and various rooms in the Station are being equipped to house a service centre with a variety of tenants, including ATMs, refreshment facilities, and possibly a dry cleaner and postal services outlet.
"Sustainable Transport for Sustainable Development"