Tembisa Police Station needs more officers, vehicles
Waters says international standards state that there should be one police officer for every 220 residents.
Replies to parliamentary questions asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA) has revealed that the Tembisa Police Station is 24 per cent short of visible policing officers to patrol our streets and that another 14 vehicles are needed,” says the DA MP Mike Waters.
“Through several questions the Minister of Police Bheki Cele has finally admitted to the crippling shortages faced by the Tembisa SAPS. Currently, the Tembisa SAPS has seven sectors with 90 police officers to patrol them with only seven vehicles.”
Waters adds that the minister has admitted that if all seven sectors were to be patrolled by two vehicles at all times, an additional 28 police officers are needed and 14 extra vehicles.
“It is little wonder that crimes such as murder, attempted murder, rape, carjacking, grievous bodily harm, burglary of residential premises and drug-related crimes are all at unacceptably high levels. Despite this, the minister in his reply stated that the SAPS is currently unable to fulfil the requirement of two vehicles per sector for visible policing, due to a shortage of resources,” he explains.
Waters says international standards state that there should be one police officer for every 220 residents.
“Based on this calculation, the SAPS is currently about 44 000 officers short, and to add insult to injury, government cut the SAPS by 2 000 posts during the last financial year and will cut another 1 000 posts this financial year. This, when crime is out of control. We need more professionally trained police, not less,” he says.
He further adds they cannot allow this dire situation to continue where women and children, in particular, live in fear of being raped and murdered.
“What we need are professionally trained police patrolling our streets 24 hours a day in order to combat the scourge of crime,” concludes Waters.
