eMbalenhle Police come under fire for poor service
“Our community has eyes and ears because they see and hear things we don’t see or hear as police. We only succeed in fighting crime because of the community that reports it,” said Deputy Minister of Police Cassel Mathale.
The woes about the eMbalenhle Police Station continued during an imbizo with Deputy Minister of Police Cassel Mathale at eMbalenhle Sasol Club on October 7.
Community members told the minister the station gates get locked at night, and they always see police vans at the foreign nationals’ tuck shops. However, the SAPS say there are no available vans to attend to the community’s complaints.
Other concerns the community raised include drugs for sale near the police station and a need for a second police station in eMbalenhle because of the growing population.
“The community of Exts 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,20, 21 and 22, known as the eMbalenhle South community, has a problem reporting a crime. We must walk for kilometres to the police station because it is too far. Then, you encounter criminals along the road to the police station.
“Criminals broke into my house last month and pointed firearms at us. They stole everything, including money. On my way to the police station, two men with knives robbed me of my cellphone at the Wellas footbridge. I had to open two cases,” a resident told the minister.
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Mathale instructed the eMbalenhle police management to take their work seriously by giving the community good service.
“We heard that things are not going well in eMbalenhle. There is no relationship between the police and the community. If we want to fight crime, we need to have a good relationship,” said Mathale.
“We heard today that the community sees the police as criminals. Some officers wear their uniforms and drive state vehicles to the tuck shops to collect whatever they are collecting while criminals sell drugs in front of the police station.
“Our community has eyes and ears. They see and hear things we don’t. We only succeed in fighting crime because of the community that reports it,” said Mathale.
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Traditional leaders also raised the issues of gangsterism and the taking of young men to initiation schools without their parent’s authority.
These leaders said they wanted to work with police to fight this because those children became gangsters when they returned.
The minister told the eMbalenhle police management that they must change how they do things, or the police ministry will return and deal with them.
Mathale asked the district police management to start a mobile police station that would assist the eMbalenhle South community while trying to find ways of building another station.
The Evander Police Station also came under fire because the community alleges drug dealers operate freely near the station.
