Driven to distraction

In 2019, Minister Roderick Galdes turned up with his entourage at Triq l-Antika, Vittoriosa. He issued a press call simply to announce that his ministry would be restoring a dilapidated building and repurpose it for social housing.

By 2023, Galdes had done nothing. The building was falling apart. Vittoriosa mayor John Boxall sent Galdes an angry letter informing him of the precarious state of that building.

Galdes still did nothing.

A year later, in July 2024, Boxall wrote Galdes another furious letter: “Honourable minister, what are you waiting for? For the house to collapse? For people to die? Don’t you think you’re taking us for a ride? Maybe this is not part of your district.”

Galdes still ignored him.

On December 31, that dilapidated house in Triq l-Antika, Vittoriosa, came crashing down. Miraculously, nobody was hurt. Masonry and debris blocked the street. Boxall was understandably incandescent:

“I am attaching photos of the building that has started to collapse… the Vittoriosa local council had already written to you about its dangerous state and the council put the responsibility of a possible disaster upon your shoulders. What happened overnight was pure luck people didn’t die.”

Galdes is pretty enterprising and driven when it comes to expanding his personal property portfolio. He’s a go-getter and amazingly proactive at restoring his own personal derelict property acquisitions. Not so when it comes to restoring public properties in Vittoriosa.

Tragedy was narrowly averted when tonnes of masonry crashed down onto the street. Galdes’s response was to issue an offensive statement: “The ministry’s priority remains the safety of residents and the general public.” After wasting six years in studious inaction and a near catastrophe, Galdes declared: “The ministry’s priority remains… the necessary intervention to permanently stabilise the building.”

When Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo accused Galdes of failing to prevent the collapse, Galdes protested that he had put up some scaffolding. Galdes even had the gall of claiming that “those structures (the scaffolding) proved crucial in avoiding a bigger collapse”.

The small matter that Galdes’s scaffolding not only failed to prevent the collapse but added to the danger as it came crashing down with the tonnes of bricks and rubble was of no interest to him.

Vittoriosa’s local council had long been pestering the minister to get his act together. Four years after that press conference and bombastic empty pledges at Triq l-Antika, Boxall reminded Galdes of those promises.

On July 27, 2023, Boxall told Galdes: “About four years ago you held a press conference in front of the building where you announced that this public property would be restored and handed over to those requiring accommodation… Four years have passed and the balconies are collapsing and I do not exclude that from one moment to the next other parts of the building will collapse... possibly leading to a serious accident.”

“Therefore, the Vittoriosa local council is requesting that you implement the promises you made four years ago,” the mayor pleaded.

Roderick Galdes is pretty enterprising and driven when it comes to expanding his personal property portfolio- Kevin Cassar

Galdes must have been too busy buying that block of apartments in the Dolomites and his properties in Siracusa, Ragusa and Catania. His plate was full chasing after workers to restore his Siġġiewi property and renting it out. He was probably focused on submitting applications to develop his agricultural land or restoring his villa in Ragusa. His time was taken negotiating special deals with Joseph Portelli.

Another year went by. And Boxall was livid. He sent Galdes photos of the further deterioration in that property in Triq l-Antika. The mayor pointed out to the minister that the scaffolding his ministry had installed was utterly useless in preventing the building collapsing.

Boxall mocked the minister: “Was this (the scaffolding) put up so that when the bricks start falling, they don’t fall in the middle of the street but simply slide down under that scaffolding? Is this how we treat the people’s intelligence?”

In an e-mail dated July 23, 2024, Boxall made it crystal clear that “substantial parts of the building are in a severe state of deterioration, and we are expecting a tragedy from one minute to the next”. Not even those dire warnings and worrying photos could draw Galdes’s attention away from his own property empire. For a man with such huge experience in restoring his own personal derelict buildings into tourist rental apartments and comfortable villas, Galdes’s disinterest in the mayor’s warnings is remarkable.

Boxall was right to be concerned for the safety of residents of his city. He was absolutely right to be angry at Galdes’s arrogant disregard for human life. Boxall was spot on when he told Galdes: “Honourable minister, what are you waiting for? For the building to collapse? For people to die and for adjacent residential buildings to be damaged?”

Boxall voiced the entire country’s rage when he told Galdes: “Minister, don’t you think you’re taking us all for a ride? Maybe this is not part of your district?”

You would have thought Galdes would issue an apology after Boxall’s predictions came true on New Year’s Eve. You would imagine Galdes would be embarrassed. But this is Roderick Galdes, a man immune to shame.

Instead, Galdes issued a gobsmacking statement: “A number of preventive technical measures had been implemented to avoid further deterioration and to mitigate any risk to public safety. These measures were crucial in preventing more extensive damage.”

There you go. You should be grateful to Galdes because, thanks to him, only the whole facade of the building came crashing down. If it weren’t for his amazing “measures”, the whole block would have crumbled.

Galdes announced that “the Social Housing Ministry is carrying out an internal investigation to determine what caused a Vittoriosa building to collapse”. That “investigation” concluded in just a few hours that it was the storm that brought the building down. Strange that no other building was destroyed.

The collapse wasn’t caused by the inclement weather. It was the result of Galdes’s utter incompetence and total inaction.

But don’t you worry. Galdes is onto the job now. After six long years of indolence and the inevitable collapse, the minister has reassured the country that “the situation is now being addressed in a concrete, serious and responsible manner”.