Masiphumelele police station - SAPS management to provide timeline

Statement by Dan Plato, Western Cape Minister of Community Safety

Clear timelines are needed to back recent public promises of satellite police stations for Western Cape communities in desperate need of quality policing service delivery.

These promises were again made recently by the Deputy Police Minister, Maggie Sotyu, on a visit to the province.

Our communities most in need of well-resourced policing services cannot be appeased with empty promises in attempts to calm protesting residents.

Communities, including Masiphumelele, are increasingly outraged at the prolonged wait for better policing services.

As part of my oversight mandate over policing in the province, I have today requested a complete delivery timeline and resource plan for outstanding police stations.

I have made this appeal directly to the operational heads of the South African Police Services (SAPS), Minister Nhleko, Deputy Minister Sotyu, as well as Acting National Commissioner, Kgomotso Phahlane.

Deputy Minister Sotyu has publicly promised mobile police stations for Masiphumelele twice this year, during visits in September and October.

So far, neither the promised mobile station for Masiphumelele, nor Nyanga, appear on the list of 14 mobile stations to be delivered this financial year according to the SAPS’ annual performance plan for 2015/16.

To complicate matters further, suspended Provincial Police Commissioner, Arno Lamoer, promised the Nyanga community their second police station as far back as three years ago, in 2012.

The latest SAPS annual report shows that a site clearing in Nyanga, the first step in the construction of a new police station, was planned for 2014/15. However, the new proposed completion date for this first step has been pushed back to March 2016.

Residents of Masiphumelele, as well as the other communities where interim mobile stations have been promised, cannot wait three more years for their policing services to improve.

It is also important for the public to be assured that resources for the new stations will not be sourced off the backs of other stations in the province already facing constraints.

We cannot allow our police officers to be continuously spread thin in response to a growing demand for better policing.

All stations in the province need to be adequately resourced with sufficient personnel, equipment and boots on the ground to ensure quality policing services delivered to all corners of the province.

Masiphumelele’s plea for quality policing services is not a luxury, it is an essential request for the SAPS to deliver on their constitutional mandate of protecting citizens and their property. This is the only way to uphold and enforce the rule of law.