Rats run rampant at Nelson Mandela Bay’s main police station, chewing wires and hiding in cars

Mount Road police station in Gqeberha, the biggest in Nelson Mandela Bay, where staff say a rat infestation has become a serious problem Nelson Mandela Bay’s main cop shop — home to the district commissioner’s office — is overrun by rats. The pests were said to have become a serious problem at the Mount Road police station, chewing through wiring underneath staff’s parked vehicles. Some staff this week said they were at their wits’ end, alleging that the cheeky rodents — believed to be coming from the station’s filthy barracks where they were breeding in nests — were hiding under parked cars and being unknowingly driven home.

In other cases, they were said to have nibbled through computer wiring in the charge office. With the problem now apparently out of hand, station management has turned to rat poison, sprinkling it around the building. “Mount Road reported the challenge regarding the rat infestation to the public works department, as [it is] the custodian of the building,” police spokeswoman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said.

“As an interim measure, supply chain management procured rat poison, which is being placed on a regular basis in identified problematic areas.” She said the station was still awaiting a response from the public works and infrastructure department. Mount Road police station is the biggest in the Nelson Mandela Bay area. The building also houses the district’s office, which oversees 18 police stations.