Africa-Press – South-Africa. Lack of vehicles, shortage of bulletproof vests and protective gear, and problems with training dogs and their handlers.
These are some of the challenges said to be crippling metro police departments in Gauteng. The administrative heads of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) and Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) revealed this on Tuesday during a meeting with the provincial legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Community Safety.
EMPD deputy chief Goodman Mzolo said the City of Ekurhuleni had seen an increase in the crime rate which could be attributed to the constant power outages across the country.
He said they had since intensified visibility, particularly in areas where the demand is high.
“The department continues implementing a range of enforcement activities to address priority crimes in the City,” Mzolo said.
He added that the department had arrested 1 023 criminals in the period between January and March 2023.
He also acknowledged serious challenges in the metro, including fuel restrictions, insufficient fleet and a poor service turnaround time at workshops.
“We can only put fuel at certain times, yet we render a 24-hour service, so we can’t leave a crime scene to put petrol.
“We don’t have cars. In this current financial year and even in the coming financial year, no provision has been made for a fleet.
“We are really struggling.
“We have internal workshops and external service providers; it is very poor,” Mzolo said.
He said the department had a shortage of armoured vehicles, bulletproof vests and protective gear, as well as insufficient storage facilities for impounds.
“When we attend to service delivery protests, we find ourselves using soft vehicles instead of armoured vehicles. We are running short of armoured vehicles.”
He added:
He said the province also faces a serious problem regarding weighbridges.
“Our weighbridges are not functional and that is why we find that our road infrastructure is dilapidating.”
The province also struggles to control illegal dumping and pollution. Mzolo highlighted an illegal dumping hotspot on the N12 near Etwatwa, where trucks dump rubbish in a stream.
“Sometimes you find that they are dumping syringes and all sorts of things which cause pollution,” he said.
He called for the education of communities on conducting business in the City.
“The informal [traders] are out of work, so you find people trading from everywhere.”
TMPD’s Sean Bolhuis said the number of fleet vehicles available at the department did not “look too good”.
“Unfortunately, we have some internal issues,” Bolhuis said.
He said the department only had 447 functional vehicles, while 311 vehicles are out of service due to breakdowns, accidents and non-payment of services.
Meanwhile, JMPD’s Angie Mokasi said they face challenges with purchasing ammunition.
“However, I can confirm that the City manager has signed off the report and we are hoping that by [the end of] this quarter we will have at least increased the number of people we can train regarding firearm compliance.”
Mokasi said the department’s K9 unit lacked dog handlers and dogs.
“As the JMPD, we have been having a problem in terms of training dogs and training dog handlers because there was an issue with the MOU [memorandum of understanding] we had to sign with the SA Police Service for them to train us.”
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