NATIONAL NEWS - Up to 26% of visible policing and 23% of detectives’ vehicles in certain provinces are broken and inoperable, leaving victims of crime stranded and vulnerable.
In KwaZulu-Natal, its 190 police stations were operating without 26,87% and 19,55% of its fleet in visible policing and detective services respectively.
This was revealed in a Parliamentary response to the Democratic Alliance (DA) from minister of Police Bheki Cele.
Cele said the department could not reveal which police stations had which shortage, as it could compromise policing activity and the safety of SAPS employees.
DA shadow minister of police Andrew Whitfield said these distressing statistics echoed the desperate cries from communities across South Africa, who said that they never see a SAPS vehicle.
South Africans have complained to the DA that response times from SAPS are unacceptably slow and that in many cases SAPS never arrives.
“This is compounded by the unacceptable state of our 10111 call centres which the DA exposed in January this year.”
“The minister laid bare the critical failure of SAPS to maintain and repair their fleet to ensure responsive policing to communities riddled with crime,” he said.
Whitfield said visible policing played a crucial role in deterring and preventing crime.
“When SAPS is visible, criminals are less likely to engage in unlawful activities. Additionally, detectives, who are instrumental in solving violent crimes, should not have to worry about a shortage of vehicles in order to reach crime scenes for investigations.”
He said with the large number of vehicles out of commission, it was unsurprising that crime rates are so alarmingly high.
Challenges hindering police
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) provincial spokesperson for Community Safety and Liaison, Blessed Gwala, said while police may strive to deliver the necessary services, they are often hindered by these challenges.
He said police needed the state-of-the-art equipment to perform their duties diligently and effectively to combat crime.
“Combining prevention, deterrence, and enforcement will give the brave women and men in our police service and criminal justice system the tools they need to keep people out of trouble in the first place and to punish those who persist in breaking the law.”
Keeping citizens safe is non-negotiable. It must be taken seriously by ensuring that police are provided with necessary support
Gwala said if the province’s police stations were under-resourced it would be impossible to win the war against crime.
“During the 2022 KZN Legislature’s police stations’ functionality monitoring programme, the shocking state of our police stations was revealed. Some SAPS stations in KZN do not have any vehicles or police officers to respond to crime.”
“Such issues deserve urgent attention from relevant authorities. Police must strive to acquire fully operational vehicles and establish various means of intervention to address the challenges of police vehicles taking longer than expected in police garages for repairs,” he said.
ComSafety Department raises concern
In response to these shortages, the KZN Department of Community Safety and Liaison said the issue of vehicles that are kept for prolonged periods at SAPS garages is a major concern.
Department spokesperson Morgan Ndaba said it conducted regular police performance monitoring and evaluation at all police stations in KZN.
We have noted it during our station evaluation and have made recommendations to police management to find ways to expedite the process when vehicles are taken to the garage for repairs.
“Another obstacle is that government garages are a national competency and the provincial police management has to direct all issues to the national SAPS office,” said Ndaba.
“Independent crime analyst Mary de Haas said the situation of broken vehicles was an old one, and the blame “obviously lies with SAPS management as the responsibility buck stops with them”.
“They need to check on who is responsible; is it at station or unit or district level or with whoever is in charge at provincial level and give orders to fix problems immediately? This is obviously not happening.”
“But the other people who bear responsibility are politicians, who supposedly have an oversight, and the provincial safety and liaison committee, which must hold MECs to account publicly,” she said.
De Haas said if the provincial politicians were doing their oversights, this wouldn’t be happening.
Article: Caxton publication, The Witness
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