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The Sebokeng Police Station's stretched resources are inadequate for crime prevention and visible policing to ensure the safety of its residents due to the increasing population and mushrooming of informal settlements.

The police station serves an estimated 400 000 people despite only having 49 allocated vehicles.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted an oversight inspection at the Sebokeng Police Station yesterday, and we were disappointed to learn that the station's allocation of resources is still based on the 2011 census, which only caters to 213 000 people. The area has since doubled its population due to the mushrooming of informal settlements.

The continuous water cuts and nonfunctional generator have left the police officers with no option but to close the police station gates during load-shedding to ensure their safety.

Furthermore, the cells have not been functional since 2016, and sewer and water leaks exist. The Department of Public Works is aware, but they have done nothing to fix this police station.

Please see images here, here, and here.

The infrastructure challenges and shortage of resources are severely affecting the police's ability to render services to their community.

An urgent intervention is needed, and we demand that the National Government prioritise building an additional police station for the people of Sebokeng.

The DA will write to the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko, demanding that she liaise with her national counterparts, the Minister of Police and Minister of Public Works, to urgently intervene to fix the infrastructure challenges and allocate sufficient resources to Sebokeng Police Station.

We further reiterate the DA's call for the dissolution of powers within the police so that the provincial government can act and fully equip Gauteng Police Stations to ensure the safety and security of its residents.

Issued by Crezane Bosch MPL and Cllr Dady Mollo - DA Shadow MEC for Community Safety and DAs Constituency Head in Emfuleni Central