Africa-Press – South-Africa. Western Cape Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen has lambasted the police for their failure to construct a police station in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, in Cape Town.
Allen said building a temporary police station was supposed to start at the beginning of this month. The structure would serve the community while they waited for a permanent building to be constructed. They will likely have to wait four years before the building was completed.
Minister of Police Bheki Cele announced the construction of the police station eight years ago in a budget speech in Parliament.
The site for the police station was identified in 2014, after the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry Into Policing recommended in 2013 that a new police station be built in Makhaza.
“More than a week into November, there has been no movement in this regard. The national minister of police has once again failed the residents of this area. This is not surprising, as the empty promises and non-delivery are what you get from an incapable national government. I’m saddened that our residents are continuously fed with promises that are not being being kept,” said Allen.
He added that the community’s closest police station is in Harare, but that police officers there are “under immense pressure”.
“The Makhaza station will alleviate some of this pressure, and [it will] also be easier accessible to some residents (sic),” Allen said.
Western Cape police spokesperson, Colonel Andrè Traut, said the Makhaza police station “is on the priority list for a new building”.
“The planning and design phase is scheduled for the 2022/2023 financial year, and the construction phase is scheduled for the 2025/2026 financial year,” he said.
He said the mobile trailer currently in use as a temporary police station would be replaced with a prefab building.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said the current mobile police station was located at a shopping mall and this meant there were no services after hours.
He added that the organisation was “highly disappointed” by what he viewed as a failure by police management in the province.
He said:
“The community is highly disturbed, and they (the police) are now bringing new excuses.”
Provincial community policing forum chairperson (CPF) Fransina Lucas said they were “disappointed the commitment was not honoured”.
“There was no communication as to why it was not honoured. If there were any delays from the relevant parties, this should have been communicated with the community. I think the national commissioner needs to come and explain to the community as to why the structure did not commence at the beginning of the month, and when is it going to start. They need to explain what prevented them from commencing with the structure,” Lucas added.
Lucas said the CPF remained hopeful that the police structure would commence soon, as crime in the area was “very prevalent”.
Ward councillor Lucky Mbiza said the community had been asking for a police station for more than 25 years.
He added that most of the community was forced to travel to the Harare police station, and even though there was a mobile police station in Makhaza, it didn’t offer all the services.
“Crime here is too much. There are car-jackings, rapes, murders, and robberies. And the police in Harare are not enough. They have to see to five wards, each with a population of more than 30 000,” Mbiza said.
He said the promises of a new police station had been going on for years, and that when Fikile Mbalula was police minister, R100 million from an abandoned renovation at Muizenberg police station was promised to disadvantaged communities in Cape Town.
“They say Makhaza is on the top-10 priority list, but it always seems to come after other areas that don’t have the population that Makhaza does,” he said.
Tyhido added that the new police station was expected to be “part of the arsenal” in combating mass murders that have plagued Khayelitsha.
Last month, three people were killed and two injured in a shooting in Siphendule Street in Makhaza.
“All this shows us is that the senior management at SAPS will always betray the police minister’s good intentions. He has shown that he really, really wanted to help Khayelitsha, yet the hearts of the people who work with are not where his heart is (sic),” said Tyhido.
National police and the police ministry had not commented at the time of publication.
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