Still no holding cells at Lyttelton police station
The police station has been without holding cells for the past seven years now and has been forced to use the Sunnyside police station’s holding cells.
More than 50 arrested suspects had to be kept in the back of a police truck overnight because of a lack of holding cells at the Lyttelton station last week.
“They were kept in the truck without food, water, sufficient ventilation and access to ablution facilities,” the DA said in a statement.
“This is unacceptable and violates the suspects’ rights.
“These suspects were supposed to have appeared in court this morning but were turned away due to an alleged outage at the court due to a substation that was flooded by heavy rains.
“The police officers on duty were struggling to find available cells at the nearby police stations to hold the suspects until their next scheduled appearance tomorrow, as other stations had no available capacity at their cells,” read their statement.
The police station has been without holding cells for the past seven years now and has been forced to use the Sunnyside police station’s holding cells.
The Sunnyside police station is some 20km from the Lyttelton police station.
This is costing the station more money in terms of fuel costs in transporting the suspects and hampers police service delivery as they must escort the suspects instead of conducting visible policing.
In addition, there is an increased risk of suspects escaping from lawful custody while being transported to Sunnyside SAPS.
In their statement, the DA added that they had conducted an oversight inspection in March and again earlier this week to see what the situation is with regards to the holding cells at the station.
Community safety MEC Faith Mazibuko stated that at this stage they cannot confirm when the holding cells will be built.
“The matter is being prioritised by the SAPS and has been reported to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (PWI).
“The building of holding cells at this police station can no longer be delayed without a proper action plan,” she said.
DA members demanded that MEC Mazibuko urgently engages the minister of public works and infrastructure to prioritise the building of the holding cells at Lyttelton police station to ensure that police service delivery continues without any further interruptions.
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