Residents fed up with police parking illegally on pavements
SAPS vehicles parked on the pavement on Park Street are causing residents to walk in street which put their lives in danger.
Residents of Park Street in Sunnyside should be elated to have the police headquarters on their doorstep but far from it, instead they are nursing constant headaches caused by officials who have taken over the pavement.
Residents say the pavement that should be for them to walk on is being used as an uncontrolled parking lot.
They claimed they were forced to share the pavements with vehicles owned by police officers and other staff stationed at the Maupa Naga building.
Resident Joselyn Ndaba said: “Because there is no pavement, we are forced to walk in the street and that is dangerous as there is a high volume of traffic.”
“We have children who want to use the park which is right in front of the police headquarters but they cannot because police officers speed in the street to attend to some emergency and where does that leave the safety of our children?” asked an angry Ndaba.
According to the Gauteng police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, it is misconduct for police officers to flout traffic laws at will.
Though this response is positive residents claim nothing had been done to correct this conduct.
Residents say police officials are still using the pavement for parking, and the Tshwane metro police was not enforcing traffic rules.
Rekord sent the metro police several emails which was not responded to.
Asked if police’s personal cars, official cars and vans could be fined, impounded if parked illegally, Dlamini said official police vehicles were not allowed to park illegally unless they were responding to an emergency such as attending to complaints or the driver was on crime prevention duty.
Dlamini did not comment further on the possible punishment that might be imposed on offending police officials.
In the city centre, private cars and minibus taxis disobeying traffic rules are impounded by the metro police.
“Within minutes of parking on a pavement in the city centre, your car is towed away by metro police. You would think your car had been stolen but where are we supposed to park,” asked Thulani Mavimbela, a motorist.
Residents said they had asked the metro police why the same rules were not imposed when police officials offended or was this protecting their colleagues?
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