Cele visits Olievenhoutbosch police station after imbizo
The Imbizo unearthed a series of policing shortcomings, especially concerning claims of poor service residents receive from the local police station.
Police Minister General Bheki Cele hosted an urgent meeting with community leaders of Olievenhoutbosch on Monday morning, regarding the improvement of their local police station.
The meeting was also attended by top SAPS officials and comes a week after a ministerial imbizo in the area.
The imbizo unearthed a series of policing shortcomings, especially concerning claims of poor service residents received from the local police station, said police ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba.
The Gauteng MEC of Community Safety Faith Mazibuko also formed part of the meeting that saw a full delegation of senior police officials led by national commissioner General Khehla Sitole.
Sithole addressed the plight of community members, as well as put a plan in place to deal with the challenges faced by the local police station.
He also announced that a clean-up campaign will take place, starting with the overhauling of the management of the police station where a new station commander will be deployed in July.
Themba said plans were underway to extend the building of the Olievenhoutbosch police station to accommodate more officers to serve the growing population.
“In the meantime, a medium term solution to the station’s resourcing shortcomings will be addressed over the coming weeks, with the injection of new patrol vehicles to compliment the existing fleet.
“A team of detectives has been assembled to investigate the hundreds of cold cases. Currently, Olievenhoutbosch has over 1 800 undetected cases,” Themba said,
“The team of investigators will track and trace suspects, wanted for various crimes including murder, rape and robbery,” she said.
The Department of Community Safety has committed to reviving the local CPF to facilitate community-police relations in the area as well as build street committees that are fully functional.
Cele said all these interventions were necessary if the police wanted to win back the trust of the community.
“The station’s performance will be monitored at the national level through the inspectorate and regular reports will be issued to the police management to monitor its progress. I am appealing to the community to work with us in cleaning up this policing area, I urge residents to report corrupt police officials, at the same time I call on community members to give support to the many good honest and hardworking officers of the law,” Cele said.
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