General Cele creates special teams to fight crime

Lethabong and Kopanong residents don’t have to walk long distances anymore to report crimes at the Boschkop police station.

This came after police minister Bheki Cele launched a new mobile police station and handed over a new patrol vehicle for the area on Tuesday.

He made the handover during a street imbizo that gives residents in both the Boschkop and Mabopane areas a platform to discuss and engage with the police on crimes plaguing the community.

It also aims to promote and improve relations between the police and the community at large.

The move comes after residents raised their concerns about poor service at the Boschkop station as well as alleged police corruption.

Community representative Sipho Mtshweni said locals had to walk long distances to get to the nearest police station while the police also “took hours” to respond to complaints.

All this against a background of corrupt police officers and gunshots “every night”.

“We appreciate the new mobile police station but we need a proper police station because the population in both areas is growing fast and the Boschkop station has few resources,” said Mtshweni.

“Community members end up renting vehicles to drive to the station, only to be told that they don’t have enough resources.”

Another resident, Luck Situ, said they wanted permanent police visibility because they “can’t sleep at night with all the crime”.

Resident Tony Shabalala complained about hijacking in the area.

“The criminals know there are no police in the area,” said Shabalala.

“Children are raped every day when going and coming back to school and every weekend we find a dead person with gun wounds.”

Shabalala also claimed that they saw police officers taking bribes from drug dealers.

Residents also said Cele should invite his colleague, Panyaza Lesufi of the Gauteng education department, to visit the area because they desperately needed a school bus, because children were being raped “almost every week” while walking to school.

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Cele said he was organising a permanent task team to address the issues in the area.

“This imbizo allows locals the chance to report policing-related service problems so that the SAPS can outline a plan to respond to them,” said Cele.

He pleaded with the community to work with the police and report any corrupt officers.

Cele also addressed the so-called Boko Haram gang.

“We are using the KZN approach and will create special teams that will clean Mamelodi and arrest all gang members.”

He said not only did the gang kill innocent people but also terrorised elected officials who were in hiding after being threatened by the gang.

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