‘Take action against corrupt police officers’ – Mamelodi residents protest

Alleged corruption of police officers and concerns about provincial government taking over Tshwane ambulance services were among the issues raised in a protest by Mamelodi residents on Saturday morning.

The general secretary of SebataKgomo Civil Movement, Apson Makaung, said the community would take the law into their own hands should the police fail to “root out corrupt police officers within their ranks”.

The marching residents cried foul that some police officers in the Mamelodi West and East police stations were corrupt.

“We are saying the majority of South African police in the entire country are rotten, they are corrupt and they are working with criminals,” Makaung told Rekord.

The protest, which started from Solomon Mahlangu Square, proceeded to Mamelodi West Clinic and ended at the Mamelodi West Police Station, saw protesters demanding better service delivery from the government.

The marchers demanded the police at a national level and the entire government open a special toll-free line for community members to report corrupt police officers.

Makaung accused the police of taking bribes from criminals, claiming that corruption within the police made residents feel unsafe.

“In most cases when members of the community phone and request the police to avail themselves urgently, they say the police vehicles are not available, but when you turn around the corner you see police in police vehicles mingling with criminals.”

Among the residents’ demands was that the Mamelodi West and East police stations be placed “under administration” within 24 months.

“They must be placed under administration so that the national police commissioner can deploy units from outside Mamelodi police stations to work in the area because the people of Mamelodi are living in fear as they no longer trust the local police,” he said.

Residents would not tolerate police officers colluding with criminals and gangs, he added.
“We are coming to the station for the last time and we will not come back again. When the police fail to meet our demands the community will take the matter into their own hands.”

He said it was difficult for the community to work with the police, adding that “the police were no longer trustworthy”.

“We have lost a lot of our family members, children are dying, people are being harassed by the gangsters and when you report them to the police the criminals attack you the following day.”

Not all police were corrupt, he said, adding that “corrupt police were, however, too many and they were putting even the lives of good police officers in danger”.

The memorandum was handed over to Mamelodi West visible policing commander Colonel Simon Makgopa.
Makgopa confirmed that the police had received the memorandum and promised that the management would attend to the issues raised by residents.

“As the Mamelodi police, we are committed to taking up the community grievances and dealing with the situation.”

He said the police would follow up on any allegations of corruption within its ranks and encouraged residents to report it.

“We do not want any element of corruption in our area.”

In relation to the health care services, the marchers demanded the clinics in the entire Pretoria to open 24 hours and healthcare staff members to be increased to be able to cope with the workload.

Makaung said chronic patients have to wake up as early as 2:00am to queue at the clinics at around 4:00am, stay for the whole day and sometimes end up not receiving any service at all because of officials who cut the queue when wanting to knock off from work in the afternoon.

He said they demanded better ambulance services.

“We know that a provincial government has taken over control of the ambulance services but as the residents we are not comfortable with that decision. This is precisely because the provincial government is not in a better position to provide the service that we want. “This is the same province that killed more than 100 people at Life Esidimeni,” Makaung alleged.

“The service of the ambulances must be coordinated by the municipality in order for the people not to suffer. Currently, the government ambulances take a minimum of two hours if you are lucky to attend to an emergency situation or don’t come at all.”

Meanwhile the provincial government is confident that the move was a good one.

Tshwane Metro Health MMC, Rina Marx, said she would take the memorandum to the officials and address the problems with them.

She confirmed that the provincial health department had taken over ambulance services in the province.

ALSO READ: Mamelodi author to launch his first book

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram