Mabopane residents want ‘corrupt cops’ out
A group of residents accused police at the Mabopane Terminus police station of taking bribes from drug dealers and not doing enough to rid the community of criminal activities.
Residents of Mabopane took to the streets on Thursday morning, to shut down their local police station demanding that the station commander and the police be “reshuffled”.
A group of residents accused police at the Mabopane terminus police station of taking bribes from drug dealers and not doing enough to rid the community of criminal activities.
“Despite us reporting it, the drug houses continue to operate, the police vans continue to visit the drug houses,” they claimed.
“Some people have been committing house-breaking in the area. When you report it to the police, they tell you to go and arrest those criminals and bring them to the station.
“Why don’t they raid those places? When we take matters into our own hands, we get arrested.”
The residents alleged that there are “a lot” of house-breaking cases they have reported to the station but nothing has been done.
“You end up taking the law into your own hands because the very same law that is supposed to serve you refuses to do so. This means we are sitting with corrupt police officers who are working with drug dealers and people who break into our houses.”
A community leader, only known by the name Jomo said on Monday, the community caught one of the alleged house-breakers.
“Obviously, when they caught him, they used force. When he was brought to the station, the police did not open a case despite the evidence the community brought.
“We do not need these types of police officers in Mabopane. We need police officers who want to serve us.”
A house-breaking victim Vusimuzi Sithole said he was at the scene when the community caught the men who had allegedly broken into his family home.
“They had our things [in their possession]. We fought with them and they confessed to taking the things.”
Jomo said the acting station commander who addressed them on Thursday “was disrespectful and treated us like criminals”.
“This is the type of behaviour that we do not want in our community. We want General Mawela to reshuffle this police station.”
Jomo said while they were protesting a motorist drove through the crowd injuring one person.
The police could not confirm the accident.
Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela said police received a memorandum from the community members.
“The complaints about service and corruption by our members will be attended to. We urge the community to report corrupt members.”
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