Ziyakhala Movement unhappy with SAPS memorandum response
After submitting a memorandum of demands, calling for the overhaul of the management of Alexandra Police Station, Ziyakhala Movement says SAPS' response does not address their urgent demand.
The Ziyakhala Community Movement has expressed dissatisfaction with the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) response to their memorandum demanding a leadership overhaul at the Alexandra Police Station.
Communications officer Duma Kulashe confirmed that while the SAPS leadership responded to their memorandum, the reply failed to address their core demand, which is the removal of the station’s leadership.
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“Their response focuses only on community involvement in curbing crime, forgetting that we are not the ones getting paid to do this work,” said Kulashe.
The movement staged a protest earlier this month, delivering a memorandum that called for the resignation of senior police officials amid rising crime statistics in the community. At the time, Colonel Jerry Phaswana, commander of Visible Policing, assured that the demands would be escalated to higher authorities.
On October 29, the group’s secretary, Malibonge Duma, told Alex News that they received the response on October 27 and discussed it.
However, after deliberating on the response, Kulashe said their concerns had not been addressed.
“They [police] are busy with CPF elections and want to shift focus there. But our demands have not been met. We wanted their leadership to step down, but it is there despite the increasing crime stats,” Kulashe stressed.
Also read: Alexandra residents demand police leadership overhaul amid crime surge
The group also raised concerns about the lack of support for community patrollers, some of whom it alleges have died while on duty, without getting the support of local police officers, Crime Prevention Wardens and the previous CPF in their line of work.
Despite SAPS officials, including Brigadier Vusimuzi Ngubane, emphasising the importance of community cooperation, Ziyakhala insists that structural leadership change is essential.
“We will press for further engagement. We will have to return to them in due course, since they are busy with CPF elections,” Kulashe noted.
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