Residents lament state of Pinetown police station

THE trail of devastation left by the July unrest is still etched in the minds of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) community and politicians alike.

The main concern for the Democratic Alliance was the state of the policing system.

On Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) national police spokesperson, Andrew Whitfield, performed an oversight visit to the Pinetown police station as part of the unrest anniversary.

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Whitfield was accompanied by the provincial DA leader, Francois Rodgers, provincial chairperson, Dean Macpherson, and Ward 18 councillor Melanie Brauteseth.

The leaders met with victims of crimes at the Pinetown civic centre where the victims expressed their lack of trust in the police. They said this was due to the police mistreating them, and with some alleging to have been wrongfully arrested and assaulted at the hands of some SAPS members in Pinetown.

Community Policing Forum (CPF) leaders were also present at the gathering to express their concerns about forming an alliance with the police in their efforts to curb crime.

Speaking to the Highway Mail, Whitfield said he has spent a few days doing oversights at police stations and engaging with community members who have been victims of crimes.

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“We are trying to get the feeling of the state of crime and police stations in the province in the build-up to the anniversary of the July looting. We would like to assess that the SAPS management at national level has intervened by providing resources, by issuing new operational directives to make sure that the police are better prepared if there is any further violent unrest in the province,” he said.

Rodgers said their assessment so far has shown the police are not ready should another incident of looting occur. “It is a sad state of affairs because what we have seen in the last few days has shown that nothing has changed since before the July riots to where we are right now,” he said.

He further stated that the DA police national spokesperson (Whitfield) will put together a report for the National Assembly and work through his portfolio committee to get some answers.