‘Social media not police station’

A spate of crimes in the north of Pretoria and complaints of police inefficiency on social media was criticised by local authorities, as many of the crimes were seemingly never reported to police.

Last week residents in Akasia had taken to social media to complain about a series of gate motor thefts and attempted house robberies.

Days later, however, none of these crimes was reported at the Akasia police station.

“No thefts of motor gates were recently reported at the station,” said police spokesperson Constable Lindiwe Mdluli, after Rekord inquired about the alleged thefts.

This after a social media user said that Berg Avenue in Amandasig was being “terrorised” by gate motor thieves.

Photos were shared on Facebook of the missing gate motors, but police said the crimes were not reported.

Around the same period, posts of attempted house robberies were seen on Facebook, yet again police were not notified.

“We are not saying that crimes reported on social media did not happen, we are saying that residents must first report it at the police station.”

Mdluli said no crime was too big or too small for the police to investigate. She said even “attempted” crimes must be reported at the nearest police station.

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