MORE than half of Norkem Park SAPS’ officers failed their shooting competency tests.
Out of the 121 police officers, 79 failed. That is just over 65 per cent of the police officers at Norkem Park Police Station who should not be carrying firearms.
“This is extremely serious for many reasons and I intend to take it up with the minister of police as a matter of urgency, said Mike Waters, DA MPL.
He issued a statement regarding this after attending a public DA meeting in Birch Acres on Monday.
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Kohler-Barnard and the deputy chief whip in parliament, Mike Waters, addressed the meeting.
The main focus of the meeting was the DA’s Norkem Park SAPS Resources Petition, which a number of residents in Birch Acres and surrounding areas have signed. Among issues raised was the apparently crisis at Norkem Park Police Station regarding firearm competency.
Waters said the men and women in blue had to go for a shooting competency test every year to ensure their accuracy is spot on when shooting at people and that innocent people are not injured.
“Here in Birch Acres, we have seen an increase in housebreakings, car hijackings and theft of and from motor vehicles. The very place we all should feel the safest, our homes, are now becoming fortresses with high walls, electric fences, alarms, security cameras and security beams,” Waters pointed out.
“This is certainly not how we should be living and it certainly is not the vision the DA has for South Africa.”
Waters also indicated that the DA had made a visit to Norkem Park Police Station earlier that day in order to find out what the current situation was on the ground.
“The station now services 73 249 residents with 121 uniformed officers and 16 civilians, resulting in a ratio of one police officer for every 605 residents,” he said.
“Despite the station having to service additional areas such as Edleen and Birch Acres Extensions, we still only have three sectors with just one vehicle for visible policing for every shift.”
Waters said the station had 35 vehicles, eight of which were currently in the workshop.
“That is nearly a quarter. What this means is that vehicles are moved from different divisions in order to ensure that visible policing is not affected. Seven of the eight vehicles currently out of commission are from visible policing. The lack of vehicles affects the police’s ability to respond to crimes and to conduct investigations,” he said.
Waters added that when police vehicles went to the mechanical workshop they were not repaired speedily.
A parliamentary reply, he said, indicated the following: As far as vehicles from Norkem Park are concerned, some of those vehicles were at the workshop for 80 days on average.
“The replacing of a cylinder head, for example, had taken 313 days, a simple inspection took 72 days and one vehicle has been at the workshop for 74 days with no work code being allocated to it, and 84 days for an exhaust replacement,” he said.
The 38 detectives have to share 14 vehicles. They have between 80 to 90 cases each and some over 100 cases they have to investigate.”
So what would the ideal situation be in order to combat crime? Waters asked.
“I was told ideally we would need an additional three sectors, so six in total with two vehicles patrolling during each shift, but that will take political commitment and prioritisation.”
During the meeting, Ward 13 branch chairperson, Steven Makopo, and PR councillor Allan Sauls, presented the petition to Kohler-Barnard and Waters, who will submit it to the minister of police, Nkosinathi Nhleko.
