The lack of resources such as telephone lines, police vehicles and infrastructural challenges is severely affecting the delivery of police services and staff morale at the Kliptown Police Station.

This has been made worse by a slow response time from the Public Works Department to fix infrastructure issues at the station. The telephone lines have not been operational for the past 11 months, and the cameras used to profile victims have not been operational for almost two years.

This information was discovered during the Democratic Alliance's (DA) oversight inspection at the Kliptown police station. We were shocked to discover that the police officers are using their own personal cellphones to take photos of the suspects to be uploaded onto the system. This is not only a security breach but also an invasion of the privacy of a suspect.

Furthermore, the security cameras and systems have been vandalised, further impacting on the safety of both police officers and complainants.

Kliptown SAPS is in dire need of additional vehicles for visible policing, detective services, and patrols. Most of the stations' departments have a 25% shortage of police vehicles. In the detective services unit, 7 of the 20 vehicles are in the process of being written off as well as 11 of the 26 vehicles at the visible policing unit.

Despite several complaints and reports, the Department of Public Works, and the SAPS provincial Head Office are slow in responding to basic maintenance of ablution facilities and adhering to the replacement of equipment like benches for complainants in the charge office. The staff, GBV victims and community members use the same ablution facility which is not maintained.

In addition, only two out of six holding cells are being used because of the lack of maintenance and detainees are either transferred to another station or housed in inhumane conditions.

The DA demands that the Gauteng MEC of Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko must urgently liaise with her national counterparts Minister of Police, Bheki Cele and Minister of Public Works, Patricia De Lille, to intervene and fix infrastructure challenges at Kliptown police station.

The DA will also continue to push for the inclusion of the DA’s Community Safety Bill which is the only solution to improving police service delivery and ensure that all our police stations are well-equipped and monitored to deliver adequate services to the communities they serve.

 

Issued by Nico De Jager MPL - DA Gauteng Member of Community Safety Committee