Hercules residents demand more from their police team

Residents of Hercules recently had the opportunity during a community imbizo to grill their police force over recently rising crime in the area.

The imbizo, which took place on January 28 at the Grizzles Rugby Club in Hercules, was attended by local and provincial police, all four subsectors of the Hercules CPF, ward councillors, the Department of Community Safety, private security companies and residents.

Key attendees included acting district commissioner, Brigadier Kushie Pietersen alongside Brigadier Devan Govender, Brigadier Kervin Solomons and Hercules Police Station commander, Colonel Nkhensani Baloyi and her support staff.

During his opening address, Govender said that district officials chose to appear that night due to the area being in the spotlight recently regarding crime.

“The reason that the district has taken this approach and come into your station area is that, for the past few weeks, there have been a lot of articles in the media and social media negatively impacting the service delivery. We want to bridge the gap between the community of this area and the local station,” Govender said.

The residents were not shy about voicing their discontent regarding policing in the area with the bulk of gripes being directed toward the Hercules Police.

Residents accused the station of not having enough resources to police the area, having corrupt officers within their ranks, not answering when called, delayed response times, being in cahoots with well-known criminals in the area, failing to address well-known hotspots, not being visible enough and being rude to community members, among other complaints.

Chairperson of the Hercules CPF, Ricky Louw, urged residents to work with police, saying that while crime prevention is the responsibility of law enforcement, it is being weakened with the help of the community.

“It is not always the weak or vulnerable that are targeted nor is it only the rich and powerful. Crime has no colour, age, race and no preference. It cripples a community, anything that can be sold for a penny or two, especially with cable theft on our doorsteps daily, anything that generates power, batteries, solar panels and even wood can be stripped,” Louw said.

Louw said that criminals were heavily armed, and downtown was filled with addicts and vagrants and gave examples of some of the recent gruesome scenes the CPF have responded to. He also said they do not have enough resources and small homes, farmsteads and rural communities were left at the mercy of criminals.

“Crime has no conscience that is why we need to stop fighting each other and take hands in combatting a known common enemy, crime. We do not have to like everyone or agree with each other on everything but we need to hate crime enough to work together,” Louw said.

Tshwane CPF chairperson, Themba Mlotshwa, reiterated the sentiments of collaboration, saying due to size of the area, cooperation was crucial.

“It begins with every individual, if you don’t close your burglar (bars) or lock your doors it doesn’t help. Yes, it was not supposed to be like that, we were supposed to live happily ever after but that’s not reality of the world. Therefore, these are things that we need to do. We need to lay the blame on ourselves first and ask “What am I doing to contribute to my safety and the community at large,” Mlotshwa said.

Ward 1 councillor Leon Kruyshaar said the greater Hercules area suffered from a breakdown of communication between the charge office and the community.
Another issue Kruyshaar brought up is the lack of social workers at the station, particularly on weekends when GBV cases are more likely to occur.

“Our area is vast, that’s the one problem that we have and we’ve got a large community growing day by day. I have not seen the Hercules Police Station grow at the same rate as the population. Some people will come with their complaints to me and I’ll ask if they have been to the police station and they’ll say no. If you don’t report, how will they grow? The police always need to be a step ahead of the criminals. When I ask them why, they say they’ve lost faith in the police,” Kruyshaar said.

Hercules Police Station commander, Colonel Nkhensani Baloyi, to whom most of the contention was addressed, pledged to residents that she and her members would do the utmost within their limits to ensure their complaints were addressed.

“At our station last year, we had a number of informants, I believe that they were 25 and now that number has increased to 27. Through the assistance from you as the community as well we can form cases and arrest these known criminals,” Baloyi said.

A petition was recently launched calling for Baloyi to step down, alleging that the station has been disrupted since her arrival. The petition has garnered over 250 signatures thus far.

Baloyi insisted that residents continue reporting their crimes and complaints to the station and should they be confronted by unhelpful members, to take it to her personally and if still they were unsatisfied, to escalate these to her provincial superiors.

The station currently only has three vehicles to patrol the area, authorities say that retrieving more vehicles or manpower is not as simple as the community would hope and ultimately, the final call does not lie with them.

During her addresss the acting district commissioner expressed her discontent regarding people’s lack of willingness to meet her halfway.

Pietersen is not only the acting district commissioner but also the Brooklyn station commander and a Pretoria West resident herself, residing in Moutain View.

During her keynote address, she called upon all four sector managers of the Hercules CPF, chairperson Ricky Louw and station commander Baloyi, urging residents to work with them as they were there to serve.

“I’ve had meetings with Baloyi and I have taken note of all of the complaints, I’ve engaged with Louw as well and am going to conduct a station lecture soon. I need to go listen to what are the internal struggles of the station. From the management side, I am trying, we have Brigadier Solomons overlooking and mentoring Baloyi, so he will be with the station looking out for you. We can see where we can assist but remember that not everything is within our reach. As much as we’d also like to just break rules and do certain things, we are also governed by other bodies,” Pietersen said.

The police aims to engage with CPF sectors more regularly in future and has urged residents to try to work with Baloyi as she is a new commander.

“I wish that this meeting could just be a start of changing the mindsets of the community to start working together. We cannot just appoint and start chasing away station commanders, we [have] to start working together for the benefit of the police station and let’s not promote ideals that will continue to sow division amongst each other,” Pietersen said.

Important Hercules Police contact details:

-Station commander: 082 822 8184
– Vispol policing commander: 082 319 9737
– Detective commander: 082 820 6318
– Support commander: 064 245 2714
– Hercules Community Service Centre (CSC): 071 675 6453
– Hercules Station duty officer: 071 675 6452

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